Media Releases

Engineering Science student is honoured as ambassador and role model for women

April 14, 2011

TORONTO, ON – Vivian Hui, a third-year Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Engi­neer­ing Sci­ence stu­dent from Markham, Ontario, has won the 2011 Cana­di­an Engi­neer­ing Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion (CEMF) Under­grad­u­ate Schol­ar­ship – Ontario Region in a strong field of com­peti­tors.

Hui will join four oth­er under­grad­u­ate engi­neer­ing stu­dents, from the regions of British Colum­bia, Prairies, Que­bec and Atlantic, as the newest ambas­sadors and role mod­els for women in engi­neer­ing across Cana­da in 2011.

The CEMF awards five $5,000 schol­ar­ships annu­al­ly to the most promis­ing women in an accred­it­ed under­grad­u­ate engi­neer­ing pro­gram in Cana­da. The award rec­og­nizes lead­er­ship and extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties. All the recip­i­ents are active­ly involved in their com­mu­ni­ties, vol­un­teer many hours to help­ing oth­ers and are strong role mod­els for the engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion. Com­pe­ti­tion was fierce this year, with many out­stand­ing appli­cants.

Hui – who is enrolled in Engi­neer­ing Sci­ence with a cho­sen major in infra­struc­ture – is a co-chair of the U of T club Eyes of Hope. The club fundrais­es for char­i­ties such as World Vision Cana­da, Free the Chil­dren and Habi­tat for Human­i­ty, for which it has so far raised over $30,000 to build a home. It also engages in projects such as the Umbrel­la Paint­ing Ini­tia­tive, which engages home­less youth in cre­ative activ­i­ty dur­ing week­ly sup­per­time drop-ins at Toronto’s Knox Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

“Vivian is a devot­ed vol­un­teer, excep­tion­al future engi­neer and ambas­sador for the pro­fes­sion who is rich­ly deserv­ing of this pres­ti­gious schol­ar­ship,” said Cristi­na Amon, Dean, Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing. “I am delight­ed that she is being rec­og­nized by the CEMF for her many lead­er­ship con­tri­bu­tions to the com­mu­ni­ty.”

The win­ners “are join­ing the ranks of over 100 oth­er remark­able women who have received a CEMF schol­ar­ship, and who, col­lec­tive­ly, rep­re­sent the very best the engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion has to offer,” said Hunt­ley O’Connor, P.Eng., CEMF Pres­i­dent. “We are con­fi­dent each will go on to suc­cess­ful careers as pro­fes­sion­al engi­neers.”

The awards will be pre­sent­ed at the CEMF annu­al awards lun­cheon being held in Hal­i­fax next month.

Since 1990, the Cana­di­an Engi­neer­ing Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion has been pro­mot­ing engi­neer­ing as a career choice for young Cana­di­an women through its exten­sive schol­ar­ship pro­gram, a web­site that attracts thou­sands of new vis­i­tors a month, social media pro­gram­ming, and via the schol­ar­ship win­ner pre­sen­ta­tions to high school stu­dents.

The Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is the pre­mier engi­neer­ing insti­tu­tion in Cana­da. Estab­lished as the School of Prac­ti­cal Sci­ence in 1873, Engi­neer­ing at U of T ranked first in Cana­da and thir­teenth in the world in the 2010 Times High­er Education–World Uni­ver­si­ty Rank­ings. The Fac­ul­ty num­bers more than 4,900 under­grad­u­ate stu­dents, 1,600 grad­u­ate stu­dents, 250 staff, 40,000 alum­ni and 230 pro­fes­sors, who hold near­ly 60 chaired posi­tions includ­ing Indus­tri­al Research Chairs and Cana­da Research Chairs. www.engineering.utoronto.ca

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Jen­nifer Hsu
Exter­nal Rela­tions Offi­cer, Engi­neer­ing Sci­ence
416–978-8634
engsci@ecf.utoronto.ca

Liz Do
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer
416–946-0922
liz.do@utoronto.ca