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By Craig Leroux, Senior Communications Officer

Queen’s University recently awarded more than $2 million in internal scholarships, fellowships and awards to 185 graduate students. The funding underscores the university’s commitment to supporting its budding researchers, allowing them to develop expertise to enhance their lives and careers, while building new knowledge that has the potential to make a positive impact on society.

“Queen’s graduate programs attract outstanding students from across Canada and around the world,” says Brenda Brouwer, Vice-Provost and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. “The university is thrilled to be able to offer significant financial support to help graduate students carry out their research and succeed in their degree programs.”

The university is well positioned among its peer institutions in the U15 group of Canadian research universities, with Queen’s students receiving a higher-than-average proportion of support from internal scholarships and awards than from other sources, such as teaching and research assistantships.

“Unlike teaching and some research assistantships, these awards are not tied to employment and therefore allow graduate students to devote their time to their studies and research,” says Dr. Brouwer. “Queen’s is able to offer such a high level of internal support thanks to the philanthropy of its benefactors and their belief in the importance of investing in graduate students.”

Nearly all of the $2 million in scholarships, fellowships and awards are made possible by the generosity of Queen’s alumni, parents, staff, faculty and friends.

Sarah Alford

Sarah Alford is one student who will benefit from that generosity when she arrives at Queen’s in September. An incoming PhD student in art history, Ms. Alford was chosen as a recipient of an academic leadership award, valued at $40,000 annually for four years.

When Ms. Alford learned that she would receive award, she first laughed, and then cried, she says. “Receiving this award is both exciting and a huge relief. Queen’s is the perfect fit for me and this award will give me the freedom to do my research and give it everything I have.”

Ms. Alford, who is both a practising artist and a scholar of the history of craft, earned her undergraduate degree in jewellery design and metalsmithing at NSCAD University (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) and completed both a Master of Fine Arts in studio and a Master of Arts in visual and critical studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She went on to teach classes in art history at NSCAD before deciding to undertake a PhD and selecting Queen’s University.