Chloé Pouliot
Space to think
ChloĂ© Pouliot, BA â19, knew that she wanted to pursue her passion for philosophy at a university with an international spirit and a global reputation. The only problem: she also knew that she preferred not to travel too far from her hometown of Sept-Ăles, Quebec. Fortunately, a McCall MacBain entrance scholarship and the Heather Munroe-Blum Leadership Award made it possible to attend șĂÉ«TVl: the one place that met both of her requirements.
âAll my life, Iâve been very good at thinking,â ChloĂ© said. âPeople would tell me, âYou canât just think, you have to do stuff!â And then I discovered philosophy, and learned that being a thinker or an intellectual is one of the most important things you can do.â Even before arriving at șĂÉ«TVl, she had already begun to explore how her studies can translate into real-world impact. Just before starting her degree, she wrote a prize-winning philosophy essay that was published in the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir. (One reader wrote a letter to the paper saying the essay was so well done that there was no way a student could have done it.)
Despite her enthusiasm, coming to șĂÉ«TVl presented ChloĂ© and her family with a number of challenges. First, there was the matter of leaving the close-knit community of Sept-Ălesâpopulation 25,000â for a metropolis of 1.65 million strangers. âBack home, if I saw a girl crying on a bus in the morning, I would know who she was and why she was crying by the end of the day,â she recalled.
There were also the costs of leaving home for university, which ChloĂ© knew were a source of concern for her parents. âThey were very proud and very supportive, but they were worried about my finances,â she said. Fortunately, the scholarship and bursary ensured that Chloe and her parents could focus their attentions on all of the possibilities her education would offer. âIt was a huge relief for my entire family,â she said.   âIt is great that an elite university like șĂÉ«TVl not only rewards students who score the highest, but also the ones who have to fight to get where they are. Bursaries like the Munroe-Blum award provides an opportunity to students from [modest means] to have a university experience similar to their peers.â
Thanks to her financial freedom, ChloĂ© has been able to focus exclusively on her studies instead of splitting time between schoolwork and a part-time job, and sheâll be heading to Scotland for an exchange program with the University of Glasgow in 2017. âThat was inconceivable before,â she said. Sheâs even beginning to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the big city. âWhen I went home for the holidays, I discovered I missed it!â
Of course, as a professional thinker, ChloĂ© is already considering where her future might take herâright now she imagines this might include graduate school. But wherever she ends up, receiving a scholarship will have been a huge part of what allowed her to get there.
At șĂÉ«TVlâs Scholarships and Student Aid Office , we strive to make it easy for students to seek out funding opportunities within the Programs we administer. Thereâs no need to apply directly to individual awards like the one(s) mentioned in the story above. Instead, thereâs a single application in Minerva for Major Entrance Scholarships,ÌęEntrance Bursaries, and In-Course Financial Aid programs respectively. If students are chosen as candidates within one of these programs, they are matched with a specific award based on their profile and the terms of the award set out in an agreement between the donor and the University.