Unleashing student potential

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to you for supporting graduate students in their academic journey. Graduate school is a challenging path, and your support makes it easier and more enjoyable. Graduate students at the University of Calgary have a proven record of shining on the Canadian and global stage in terms of the quality of the work and research they produce. These achievements would not have been possible without the support of generous donors. On behalf of all my fellow graduate students, I would like to thank you for your continued support, and I hope that one day we can do the same for future graduate students.

I would like to thank you for the scholarship I received. I was interested in the Geoscience program because I was never taught geoscience in school, but was always fascinated about how the things we see every day were formed and wanted to know more about the processes that formed the earth. By receiving this scholarship, I was allowed to continue learning about the things I love and was able to be part of an independent research project with the extra money. I appreciate being chosen for this scholarship and thank you again for supporting me in these tough times.

I would like to thank you for the Robert Boulware Memorial Scholarship. This means a lot to me as it helps lower my student loan. It also means a lot to me coming from a Canadian company as I was born and raised in Calgary. In the future, I would like to stay in Canada and work for a Canadian company.

I am beyond grateful to be receiving this award. This award is a reminder that the tough decisions my parents and I have made over the past several years were not in vain. My parents escaped the Yugoslav War, which forced them to find any country that would accept them. They came here with borrowed money and had no personal contacts to help them. They worked themselves to the bone so that, when I was born, I would have as many opportunities as possible. Both my parents began working in industries that worked alongside oil and gas. Before applying to the University of Calgary, I had never heard of the Geophysics program or profession. I knew this degree would meet all the desires I had. During my first two years, I worked anywhere from eight to 36 hours in a week, while taking four or five lab-based courses. That schedule of nonstop physical and mental work started to wear me down and my academic performance felt in jeopardy. Then the pandemic rocked the world and changed what I valued more. To protect my health, I decided to quit my job and start focusing on schooling full-time. During a full year of online schooling that contained more late-night work sessions and larger-scale projects, I was further convinced that focusing on school was the correct choice. I am extremely thankful to be receiving this award, and I promise this only motivates me to become a better geoscientist in the future.