My sister, the genius

My sister left me a message today at work saying she had really good news about something cool. So I was joking around with someone at work today, saying my sister probably won this ridiculously amazing scholarship because she's really "rockin' the scholarship circuit" at the moment.

Well... she did.

THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So a little bit of background...

My sister is in the brand new Aging, Health and Well-Being Ph.D. program at the University of Waterloo. She was accepted into this really prestigious program cause she is really smart and hardworking and awesome. Now, she's been winning scholarships left, right and center... again due to the fact that she is (as previously mentioned), really smart and hardworking and awesome.

She then applied to the CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) scholarship last year. This is an award that is only given out to 15 or 20 people in the ENTIRE COUNTRY. Most people apply for this award, and have to apply 2 or 3 years in a ROW until they have built up enough papers and research and credibility to even be in the running for this... and MY sister applied anyway even though she figured it was "just for practice" and there was not really any remote chance of actually winning.

So, she applied and then heard that she didn't win it. Then today, the secretary from Norm's research office called and said, "So, when did you want to start your CIHR funding, then?" Norm was like, "Whaaat? I didn't win that, they told me months ago." And... wait for it... the lady said, "Well, look on the website!" Sure enough, Norm was on there. The story is that occasionally CIHR is able to to put together some extra funding, and this year they ended up offering the same prestigious scholarship to 2 extra people (Norm and 1 other person), 6 months later. So this year instead of 18 people in the country getting the award, 20 people got it. And one of the extra 2 was the famous and brilliant Norma Jutan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so frickin' proud of my sister it's ridiculous. This is like a CRAZY award that the best students in the country get, and they have to apply 3 or 4 years in a row to have any shot at it. And Norm got it the FIRST TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a HUGE multi-year scholarship, which pays for her tuition and rent and everything else, and the University responds to this scholarship by giving a congratulatory award of their own... the freakin' PRESIDENT'S SCHOLARSHIP. Big big big big news. So Norm gets to go to this amazing formal dinner, get the super prestigious award presented to her, and get the overwhelming feeling that being a member of the Jutan family is pretty much the best thing ever.

So not only did she just hit a freakin' gold mine, she ALSO gets the massive benefit of being able to work with funding so she can focus her research, and even more importantly is that now that she has won this scholarship, she's been catapulted into yet another catagory of researchers, and it is quite possible for her to get more prestigious grants and research possibilities due to this award and the prestige that comes along with it. MAN THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so proud of you Norm it's almost impossible to describe. It's SO awesome to see you not just "coming into your own" over there at the University, but just OWNING it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you say, "born to be in academia?" Looks to me like you finally found YOUR Industrial Light + Magic. :)