Polytechnique launches scholarship
University of Calgary graduate is first Order of the White Rose recipient
Twenty-six years later, Nathalie Provost still has a scarred soul, she says. Four bullets and a brush with a madman will do that.
But this survivor of the massacre at École Polytechnique Montréal on Dec. 6, 1989 — the woman who tried to reason with the gunman as he killed 14 women and then himself — knows that the tragic events of that day are inseparable from the person she has become.
And there is some solace for her in the fact that, as the gruesome events of that day become part of an increasingly distant past, the anniversary each year can be marked by more positive things.
One of those positives is the Order of the White Rose, a new $30,000 scholarship spearheaded by the Polytechnique to be awarded annually to a Canadian woman pursuing graduate studies in engineering anywhere in the world. It was proposed last year as part of the activities to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the tragedy.
It may have been a long time coming, Provost said in an interview, but she sees it as a step forward — a “magnificent gesture” that she hopes will encourage more and more women to follow their dreams into engineering.
Twenty-six years after the massacre at Polytechnique shocked the nation, the victims are being honoured in a new way this year. The Order now has its first recipient, Tara Gholami, a stellar mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Calgary who is studying at Stanford University in California.
She, too, marvels that something positive has emerged from the violent killing spree at Polytechnique, which targeted women by a man who vilified “feminists” for ruining his life.
“It amazes me that people have been able to take something so tragic and respond with generosity, not hatred,” Gholami said in an interview from California. “That inspires me. It gives me hope about humanity.”
She is absolutely thrilled to be the first recipient of the Order of the White Rose, and believes it is something that will give her a stronger voice to be able to reach out to more girls and young women about achieving their dreams.
Gholami has always advocated that girls shouldn’t put limitations on themselves. It was a lesson she learned from her mother, an engineer, who would show Gholami the floor plans she brought home to work on and provided her with a strong female role model.
“I thought it looked so cool,” said Gholami, who was raised in Iran until the age of 11. “She definitely inspired me to be an engineer.”
The first Week of the White Rose last year raised about $25,000 and is aimed at giving girls from disadvantaged communities the opportunity to take part in science awareness activities, through the sale of virtual white roses.
This year’s campaign started Nov. 30 and goes until Dec. 6, although the website operates yearround at whiteroseweek.org.
“This scholarship recognizes not only the importance that Polytechnique attaches to women’s contributions to engineering, it is also part of the dream of all young women who want a career in engineering,” said Christophe Guy, executive officer of the engineering school.
There is no question that the scholarship and the whole White Rose campaign is very forward thinking and hopeful. “The future blooms in our hands,” is its tag line.
But Provost also sees its significance in keeping the memory of her classmates alive.
“This scholarship enables a future engineer to realize a dream that may seem unattainable, a dream that is similar in many respects to the one that was cherished by those who left us,” she said.
There will be a commemorative ceremony on the mountain on Sunday, Dec. 6 at 5 p.m., at the MontRoyal Belvedere chalet. At 8 p.m., 14 beams of light will honour the women killed in the attack.