In April 2020, three graduate students from the Master’s in Public and International Affairs program at Glendon were awarded the prestigious Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) and Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s (CGS M), for conducting innovative research in their respective areas of study. Glendon is proud to celebrate the three graduate student recipients of the 2019-2020 scholarship competition: Allison O’Neil, Nourhan Salloum and Zoleikha Nouri.
The OGS and the CGS M are awarded to high-achieving students engaged in research at the graduate level. Offered by the provincial government, the OGS is valued up to a maximum of $15,000 over two years. The Canadian Tri-Council Funding Agencies provide the CGS M, worth $17,500 for one year. The goal of the OGS and CGS M scholarships is to allow masters students to focus on their studies, facilitating the development of students’ research skills. Students winning the scholarships have a first-class average and are evaluated on in the following three areas: academic excellence, research potential, and personal characteristics and interpersonal skills.
About the Recipients:
Allison O’Neil
Allison O’Neil is a second-year student in the Master’s in Public and International Affairs (MPIA) program at Glendon. The MPIA provides students like O’Neil the opportunity to engage in graduate-level research by writing a Major Research Paper and applying their research through an internship. O’Neil is writing a Major Research Paper on: “From Apology toward Reconciliation? Federal Policy Discourse about Services for Indigenous Children in Canada, 2008–2020”, and is completing an internship in the Strategic Policy branch at Indigenous Services Canada.
O’Neil’s research, under the supervision of Dr. Elaine Coburn, uses Critical Discourse Analysis to describe how federal government rhetoric about Indigenous peoples in Canada has changed over the last decade, in light of the nationwide movement Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. O’Neil studies this period of shifting Canadian discourse to question what policies have been put in place with respect to Indigenous peoples, and with what potential to engage with decolonization and reconciliation in Canada.
Nourhan Salloum
Nourhan Salloum is a second-year student in the MPIA program. Salloum credits her success in the OGS and CGS M competitions to her supervisor, Dr. Willem Maas, and to the Research and Innovation Office. According to Salloum, these on-campus supports provided her with the strategies and resources when researching, writing, and editing her winning scholarship applications.
Salloum analyzes public health care policies in Canada, through which she aims to uncover solutions to influence systemic change in Canadian health care policy. Salloum enthusiastically claims that: “my experiences participating in seminars, workshops and projects in the MPIA program have facilitated opportunities for me build on my educational background, my professional experience, and my research interests, allowing me to obtain a comprehensive and advanced education in public and international affairs”.
Zoleikha Nouri is a second-year student in the MPIA program. Under the supervision of Dr. Shirin Shahrokni and Dr. Marie Lavoie, Nouri examines international and domestic immigration policies and their implications for refugees’ fundamental rights. Of specific interest to Nouri’s research is her focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and their impact on the vulnerable populations she studies.
Zoleikha Nouri
Nouri’s research initiatives are influenced by her professional experiences reviewing the implications of policy on immigrant populations as a Senior Protection Assistant with the United Nations. Thanks to her engagement with academic research in the MPIA, Nouri can now successfully apply her research experiences to what she hopes is a future career in international humanitarian work.
The MPIA and the Research and Innovation Office at Glendon congratulate once again the three recipients of the OGS and CGS-M in 2020: Allison O’Neil, Nourhan Salloum and Zoleikha Nouri, on their outstanding achievements – bravo!
The MPIA program and the Research and Innovation Office both look forward to facilitating more such opportunities to support and engage students in research at the graduate level.
To learn more about the graduate funding workshops offered by the Research and Innovation Office during the Fall Semester, click here.