A Guelph student won a life-changing scholarship worth $120,000 for the entirety of her bachelor's degree in engineering.
Phalguni Nandakumar, 18, is in her final year of the International Baccalaureate program at Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School. The diploma program is for academically exceptional students to prepare them for post-secondary education and is internationally recognized by universities.
Nandakumar wasn’t going to apply for the scholarship because she was scared she wasn’t going to get it. Her friend encouraged her to apply anyway. She was nominated by her guidance counsellor Amy Nash for the Schulich Leader Scholarship. The scholarship awards 100 students enrolling in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs at universities across Canada to cover their university expenses so they can focus on their studies.
Nandakumar got the news she won last week and it took her by surprise.
Universities have up until June 15 to notify the recipients. There are other Guelph students from UGDSB and WCDSB who were also nominated for the scholarship.
In the fall Nandakumar will be going to the University of Toronto for its five-year engineering program. She’s excited and a bit nervous about moving to a big city since she’s lived in the suburbs most of her life.
She’ll have $30,000 per year to put towards tuition, residence, food, and books.
To say engineering runs in her family is an understatement. Both her parents are engineers. Her dad taught her computer coding when she was eight-years-old.
Her mom is a trained civil and software engineer. “And it just showed me that like, you know, no matter what your field is as long as you're passionate, you can excel in it,” said Nandakumar.
She has a 10-year-old sister who she hopes to inspire and show her she can be a woman in STEM.
Last year she started providing an eight-week coding program for youth ages eight to 13 called Creative Coding.
With help from the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition she brought the program to the Kortright Hills neighbourhood. When she created posters for Creative Coding she purposely made them purple and put female cartoon characters using laptops so girls would join. Often coding programs are marketed to boys so she wanted to make sure girls were included too.
She noticed throughout the program the girls had coding skills but they aren’t being pushed into the field. There were 50 young people who joined Creative Coding.
When she starts university she hopes she can pass Creative Coding onto someone else so it can continue.
Nandakumar is looking forward to meeting her professors, being a part of the campus and engaging in opportunities to make the most out of her degree.
Before she was awarded the scholarship she wanted to do co-op so she could study and earn money at the same time. She’ll still be pursuing co-op but won’t have the pressure of needing to work to financially sustain herself through university.
Every nominee for the scholarship is talented, she said. “I think out of all of those people that I was just very lucky to have this opportunity to win this money and be able to go through school without that financial burden.”
Once she graduates she wants to pursue either a master of business administration degree or a master’s degree in an engineering specialization. Her end goal is to start her own company.
