Hanes: Polytechnique Montréal scholarship recipient leads by example

Montreal Gazette

4 days ago

There were many recognizable faces among the dignitaries gathered at Polytechnique Montréal this week as Ruby Sinclair, a third-year mechanical engineering student from Queen's University, was named the first recipient of a prestigious new scholarship to lift up women in engineering and turn tragedy into meaningful change.
There was Julie Lassonde, the daughter of Claudette MacKay-Lassonde, a trail-blazing engineer, Polytechnique graduate and champion of women, after whom the new bursary is named.
There was Maud Cohen, the president of Polytechnique, whose daily mission is to promote more women and diversity in engineering, at an institution galvanized by the tragic events of Dec. 6, 1989.
There were her proud parents, Rob Sinclair and Cindy Gibson, who were themselves marked by the mass shooting where 14 women were murdered and now moved to see their 20-year-old daughter carry their torch.
And there was a version of Ruby Sinclair's younger self reflected back at her in a group of kids participating in a STEM camp at Polytechnique, who filled two rows of chairs at the ceremony wearing their bright green T shirts.
'Today is not really just about me. It's really about what Claudette did and what she stood for,' Sinclair said. 'She stood up in a time when women were wondering if they still had a place in this field. Would we ever get to learn in peace, work safely and be taken seriously? And Claudette said to every young woman in engineering: 'Yes, you deserve to be here. You deserve to have a voice — to build and to lead and to create,' and I will fight to make that true.'
It was one of many full circle moments on a day of symbolism and hope.
The Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship has come home.
The $25,000 bursary is funded by the Lassonde Family Foundation and the endowment of the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation. MacKay-Lassonde helped establish the CEMF in the wake of the massacre at her alma mater.
After 35 years, the money is being transferred to Polytechnique to administer, along with the Order of the White Rose. That sisterhood was established 10 years ago for graduate students in engineering from across Canada to carry out the unfulfilled promise of the 14 women killed in the femicide. The MacKay-Lassonde Scholarship has similar aims, but is offered to a female undergraduate student in their second or third year of engineering at a Canadian university.
The new award also seeks to commemorate the life's work of MacKay-Lassonde, one of three women in her graduating class at Polytechnique in 1971, and a leader in chemical engineering, who held open doors for other women until her death from cancer in 2000.
As the inaugural laureate, Sinclair embodies the same kind of leadership.
She was fresh off a plane from South Korea, where she did an internship focused on motion detection at a sports technology firm as a Cansbridge Fellow.
Through her interest in biomedical engineering she has worked on low-cost prosthetics, designed lunar-traction mechanisms for the Canadian Space Agency and automated AI processes for startups.
But she also goes above and beyond studying. She has spoken on the Queen's Engineering Alumni Panel, published a book to spark curiosity called Invented, about 100 revolutionary inventions, and co-hosted a campus radio program — to name a few of her accomplishments.
Julie Lassonde aid Sinclair shows the same kind of spirit as her mother.
'She's so incredibly impressive,' Lassonde said. 'It just goes back to my mother and her values and the tenets by which she lived, which is giving back to her community and those who lifted her when she chose to do something like engineering in the '60s. I see Ruby doing exactly the same thing and embodying that and bringing that forward ... Obviously it's extremely emotional, in the sense that it's full circle.'
Valérie Bélisle, the vice-president of philanthropy and alumni relations for Polytechnique, said Sinclair stood out from among 70 exceptional applicants from across Canada.
'What distinguishes Ruby is her ability to connect worlds, forming a connection between engineering and humans with leadership and kindness. Just like Claudette she builds bridges and creates links for the betterment of society,' said Bélisle. 'Ruby doesn't just excel in her studies, she takes action. She wants to bring engineering closer to the people it's meant to serve.'
Among Sinclair's many remarkable skills, which include art and creative writing, Cohen noted that the Kingston, Ont.-born recipient is also fully bilingual, having done much of her schooling in French.
'It's exceptional for us to have that in the first recipient. It's just by chance,' Cohen said. 'But it's a happy coincidence.'
Sinclair put her French into practice, animating a workshop on building bridges for the group of Polytechnique day campers — her first act of outreach as a Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholar.
The summer STEM camps are another way that Polytechnique seeks to make engineering more inclusive, Cohen said.
'This camp is a camp where all the kids have a chance to come, no matter their horizons. It has bursaries, with a focus on young women. And there are bursaries also for young people who are in more precarious circumstances,' she said. 'It's a matter of inclusion that's much larger for us.'
It was a deliberate decision to award the scholarship during the summer with the day campers in attendance.
The kids clustered around tables and opened boxes with materials such as marshmallows, elastic bands, Popsicle sticks and glue while Sinclair gave a short lesson on the forces of tension and compression. Then she let them carry out the task.
'I remember being in those camps wearing that T-shirt. I remember doing those workshops,' Sinclair said, recalling attending STEM summer camps at Queen's as a kid.
Seeing young adults only a few years older than herself was a major inspiration that convinced her she, too, could pursue engineering.
'When I talk about those mentors, a lot of them were in those camps, and so to really give back very tangibly what to me was impactful to my ability to get there. It means a lot,' she said. 'Time has flown so quickly and you don't realize the support you're getting until you actually see it in hindsight.'
It was also a full circle moment for Sinclair's parents, who were studying at McGill University in 1989 when a gunman burst in to Polytechnique. To see their daughter carry the light of the women who were murdered that night has been weighted with meaning.
'I'm not sure she'll really understand how significant a moment in our lives that was,' Rob Sinclair said.
'It's good that it's not as heavy for her. For us, we immediately were brought back,' Gibson said. 'So to be amongst this family — Polytechnique as a family — to see how deep these roots are, not just that moment but beyond, that it's a flashpoint of strength now, that moved us a lot. She's won a few awards, but this one, we were shook by it.'