::alio!::

DEFAULT! DEFAULT!

Wow, when they said they didn't plow the sidewalks in St. John's, they weren't kidding.

Did you know that the city only owns ONE sidewalk plow and ONE drivable snowblower? On my way home Monday night I saw the snowblower stuck in a snowbank.

Today is day 4 since the last big snow dump of about 20cm (drifts of up to 1m in places). I'm still walking most of the way to work on the street, next to fast-moving cars. Though they have managed to plow the sidewalk in front of the local schools - I suspect that's more of a private enterprise, however. At least they've plowed the sidewalk in front of my house - Elizabeth is a scary street, especially at night.

We're expecting a huge storm this afternoon, so things could get even more interesting.

In other news, I have a hopeful tidbit.

Being a grad student, we're expected to seek external funding for our projects. This means applying to any and all scholarships that come your way.

If the scholarship is run in association with the school (i.e. the foundation or whatever allots a certain number of awards to each Canadian university), then you have to send your application first through the School of Graduate Studies. If it passes their vetting process, it goes on to the foundation in charge of the awards.

More often than not, my applications don't make it past the first review board, and are never sent out to the foundations themselves.

Last week I got a letter from the SGS about my SSHRC application, basically saying that, although my application was good, it wasn't as good as the other 85 that they sent on to SSHRC. Alas. I think SSHRC and I will never get along. That must be the fifth time I've applied to them. Only once has my application made it through the first review, and that was only because I wasn't a student at the time and therefor could send it directly to the foundation.

YESTERDAY, however, was a different story altogether.

This year, I applied for the Trudeau Foundation Scholarship, a relatively new scholarship, one with which Memorial only started to associate this year. The application process was bizarre, to say the least. I had to write a 2-page personal statement detailing the underlying philosophies in my life and how I came to be the person I am today. I also had to take care to mention a person or event that shaped this philosophy.

Very touchy-feelie for an academic award application. My supervisor, who I have secretly dubbed Eeyore, because he's never happy, thought it was the weirdest application he'd ever seen, and had no idea how to counsel me on it.

Because it was so weird and so new, no one else in my department applied for it. I suspect that very few people in other departments applied for it, either.

All to my benefit, of course - because last night I got a letter from SGS telling me they've nominated it to go through to Trudeau!

If I win, I get $40k a year for tuition and living expenses, and an annual travel allowance of $20k for research-related destinations. So my fieldwork in Ottawa would be pretty much paid for, as would conjugal visits back to my husband who I will have abandoned in St. John's. In addition to this, it's a super-prestigious award, so a lot of new doors will open for me. As a Trudeau scholar, as well, I will be expected to travel all over the country (that's why the travel allowance is so high) to speak for the Trudeau Foundation and to interact on a panel with other Trudeau scholars in each of the four fields of the award. My field would be responsible citizenship.

Cross your fingers. I mean, they only award 15 of these a year for the whole country, and I'm sure there were applications that were better than mine. But at least I have a fighting chance!

Posted by Ally at January 14, 2009 07:56 AM