For a lot of Canadian engineers, the circle has particular that means. The Iron Ring they earn after commencement serves as a reminder of the obligations and ethics related to their career.

For Sophia Roy, the circle has added significance.

Roy has been named this 12 months’s winner of the celebrated Order of the White Rose scholarship, awarded yearly by Polytechnique Montréal to honour the 14 ladies who had been killed there in 1989. The scholarship, value $30,000, is awarded to a girl engineering scholar who needs to enrol in graduate research in engineering (grasp’s or PhD) on the establishment of her alternative.

For Roy, there was just one alternative. This fall she started her PhD at Polytechnique Montréal.

“Once I informed my mom about this scholarship, she was so emotional as a result of it’s like a circle going again to her story,” says Roy, whose mom started her research at Polytechnique Montréal in 1990, one 12 months after the shootings.

“Earlier than the tragedy, my mom wished to check at Polytechnique,” says Roy. “Even after it occurred, she knew that’s the place she belonged. Once I was younger, she would inform that story and say ‘don’t be scared – even in case you’re in a male-dominated area like engineering, don’t be scared. Go away your mark.’”

Roy’s been heeding her mom’s recommendation ever since.

Excellence within the classroom and past

This previous spring, Roy earned her Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering at McGill, with a minor in Environmental Engineering. She graduated within the prime 5 per cent of engineering graduates on the College.

Whereas at McGill, she gained a number of awards, scholarships, and honours recognizing her distinctive tutorial efficiency and group work. In 2021, she was one for 4 McGill college students to earn the Quebec Lieutenant Governor’s Youth Medal recognizing the involvement, willpower and fixed striving of Quebecers who’ve a constructive affect of their group.

Whereas a lot of her classmates had been busy finishing assignments and learning for finals, Roy was additionally influencing coverage and determination making on the provincial stage. An intern in Quebec’s Ministry of the Atmosphere and Local weather Change, she developed a calculator to estimate emissions generated upstream of a Liquified Pure Gasoline (LNG) plan, which was utilized by the Minister to resolve on the acceptability of the venture. The LNG venture was scrapped, partially, due to the big amount of emissions generated upstream.

Serving as a mentor and a task mannequin

However a few of Roy’s most impactful work can’t be measured with GPAs or emission calculators.

She is a task mannequin and a mentor to younger ladies coming into McGill’s School of Engineering, and younger ladies contemplating coming into the sphere of engineering, however who could have their doubts.

“Each curious woman needs to be uncovered to the world of engineering,” says Roy. “Women and younger ladies typically aspire to have careers which have a constructive impression on society. Sadly, engineering is just not offered sufficient as a career the place they are often brokers of change.”

As Vice President Exterior for the Chemical Engineering Scholar Society, Roy helped manage a variety of occasions highlighting ladies within the career, together with the Lady Leaders in Chemical Engineering seminar sequence. On the similar time, she mentored incoming engineering college students by the School of Engineering’s student-run Selling Alternatives for Girls in Engineering initiative.

Roy can also be actively concerned in native elementary, secondary, and post-secondary colleges, encouraging ladies and younger ladies to contemplate coming into the sphere of engineering.

“I aspire to help the longer term cohorts of girls in engineering, simply as Prof. Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne did for me,” says Roy. “Assembly her remodeled my early tutorial journey and allowed me to consider in my ambitions.”

“I knew I needed to do one thing”

Roy selected to enter into engineering as a result of she felt prefer it was the easiest way to deal with a problem that has involved her since she was a baby – local weather change.

“Ever since I used to be little or no, I’ve cared a lot about nature and the surroundings round me. At school, once I discovered that the scenario was unhealthy by way of the local weather disaster, I knew I needed to do one thing,” she says. “I watched a documentary on Jane Goodall and the way we have to preserve biodiversity. I stated to myself ‘oh, I need be like her once I’m older.’”

Whereas in CEGEP, Roy thought of completely different profession paths – all with a watch on environmentalism. She selected engineering as a result of, at its very core, is the idea of drawback fixing. “We face very critical, very advanced environmental issues,” she says. “I entered into chemical engineering as a result of it splendidly describes my imaginative and prescient of science, particularly by utilized analysis on fixing the environmental impacts of human actions.”

The “dream job,” says Roy is to show chemical engineering whereas working her personal lab. “It might mix my two passions – analysis and mentoring the longer term era of chemical engineers.”

Order of the White Rose

In a video ready for the Order of the White Rose ceremony, each Jim Nicell, Dean of McGill’s School of Engineering, and Viviane Yargeau, Chair of the Division of Chemical Engineering praised Roy – and thanked her.

“Her accomplishments are many. From receiving the 2021 Quebec Lieutenant Governor’s Youth Medal, to serving to us make strides in sustainable analysis and environmental coverage, to being a devoted tutor and mentor, Sophia is a shiny instance of the way forward for engineering and a task mannequin for us all,” stated Nicell. “Sophia, we owe you thanks for all that you just’ve executed up to now and sit up for the various contributions you’ll make all through your profession.”

“I had the pleasure of figuring out Sophia throughout her chemical engineering research, and I witnessed the impression she had on the folks round her, not solely by her contagious power and tutorial rigour, but additionally by the way in which she sincerely cares for fellow college students and encourages younger ladies to pursue their research in engineering,” stated Yargeau. “Congratulations Sophia and thanks for being a supply of inspiration for therefore many individuals.”

For Roy, the importance of the scholarship is itself a supply of inspiration.

“The mission of the Order of the White Rose is so vital,” she says. “It’s each an enormous honour and a duty to signify the Order. The tragedy – that these 14 ladies had their lives stolen – will stick with us ceaselessly. However not in a method that ought to frighten us. I believe it pushes us to not be afraid to go after our desires.”

Sophia want to thank Prof. Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne for giving her such an ideal instance of management as a mentor all through her undergraduate research. She would additionally prefer to thank Prof. Sylvain Coulombe for believing in her and enlightening her in her profession decisions. Due to Chair Viviane Yargeau and Prof. Christopher Moraes for each encouraging her to use for the scholarship and for supporting her through the utility course of. And a heat thanks to the McGill group for all of the enjoyable and help all through her undergrad.

Learn extra about Sophia Roy being named to the Order of the White Rose.