Excellence in Midwifery Student Leadership Scholarship

The McMaster Midwifery Education Program (MEP) recognizes that students who identify as Indigenous and/or racialized contribute to the program in valuable ways which may not always be validated. To recognize these contributions, the MEP is creating a scholarship to honour Indigenous and racialized students who exemplify our ideals of contributing to the profession, adding value to the health care system, and advocating for all clients. This award recognizes outstanding midwifery student leadership in client care, community outreach and/or engagement in campus life.

You can donate to the new scholarship through the iFundMac portal here.

For a little more information about the scholarship and its creation:

We intentionally chose to create a scholarship because we have a long term vision of there being more racialized midwives in faculty positions and other leadership positions within the profession. Utilizing a scholarship platform, versus a bursary, unlocks the potential to offer not only financial relief but also to help build the recipient’s CV which in turn opens future opportunities should they want to attend graduate school, or do research, or apply for a job or leadership role.

Academic achievement is a component of the university’s criteria for any scholarship, but we have intentionally not set a specific cut point for grades for eligibility for this scholarship in order to support selection criteria that avoid further disadvantaging students. The scholarship will not be awarded on the basis of who has the highest marks. Taking into account research which demonstrates that students who are racialized and who experience greater socioeconomic disadvantage are more likely to be disadvantaged in competing for awards based on grades, the process that will be used to select the recipient will be weighed more heavily on the other criteria for the award, i.e., outstanding student involvement in client care, student leadership, or community engagement.

The selection committee for the scholarship will be comprised of three members, all of whom are racialized. The selection committee will include two university faculty or staff members, and one community midwife. We also developed the criteria for the scholarship with input from people who are racialized and with review by our Equity and Inclusion Office at McMaster.