Maple Ridge student in the running for a major graduate scholarship

A Maple Ridge student has been selected as one of the finalists for a major scholarship across Canada.

Janelle Brown-Walkus, a former Thomas Haney Secondary School student is one of this year’s 50 finalists across Canada for the McCall MacBain Scholarship, a full graduate scholarship for aspiring community leaders to attend McGill University.

The McCall MacBain Scholarships were announced in 2019 by John and Marcy McCall MacBain, and are Canada’s first comprehensive leadership scholarships for master’s and professional degree studies.

If selected as one of only 20 McCall MacBain Scholars, the award will cover her master’s program tuition and fees, plus a living stipend of $2,000 per month and a relocation grant. For a two-year master’s degree, the tuition, fees, and living stipend could come to approximately $60-70K. In addition, McCall MacBain Scholars are also given opportunities to connect with mentors and to develop their leadership skills.

“I feel very honoured to be a finalist. Getting to dental school has been a bit of a roller coaster and I think this opportunity has allowed me to reflect on that journey. My younger self is incredibly proud of where I am today,” she said.

If not selected as a McCall MacBain Scholar, she will still be eligible to receive a $10,000 finalist award.

Brown-Walkus was nominated by the University of Toronto, where she is currently enrolled. She was shortlisted from a pool of nearly 700 Canadian applicants following a rigorous application and interview process which considers character, community engagement, leadership potential, and entrepreneurial drive on top of academic strength.

She already participated in a first round of regional interviews in November.

Recently, she earned a Master of Science in Dentistry degree from the University of Toronto, where she wrote a thesis on First Nations perceptions of quality preventive oral health care in First Nations communities and now works as a statistical data analyst for the First Nations Information Governance Centre and hopes to enter the professional undergraduate dental program (DMD) at McGill.

Brown-Walkus is set to advance to final interview in March, in Montréal for the program’s second cohort.

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