捆绑SM社区

Chlo茅 Pouliot

Space to think

Chlo茅 Pouliot, BA 鈥�19, 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-脦les, Quebec. Fortunately, a McCall MacBain entrance scholarship and the Heather Munroe-Blum Leadership Award made it possible to attend 捆绑SM社区: the one place that met both of her requirements.

鈥淎ll my life, I鈥檝e been very good at thinking,鈥� Chlo茅 said. 鈥淧eople would tell me, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 just think, you have to do stuff!鈥� And then I discovered philosophy, and learned that being a thinker or an intellectual is one of the most important things you can do.鈥� Even before arriving at 捆绑SM社区, 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 捆绑SM社区 presented Chlo茅 and her family with a number of challenges. First, there was the matter of leaving the close-knit community of Sept-脦les鈥攑opulation 25,000鈥� for a metropolis of 1.65 million strangers. 鈥淏ack 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,鈥� she recalled.

There were also the costs of leaving home for university, which Chlo茅 knew were a source of concern for her parents. 鈥淭hey were very proud and very supportive, but they were worried about my finances,鈥� 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. 鈥淚t was a huge relief for my entire family,鈥� she said. 聽聽鈥淚t is great that an elite university like 捆绑SM社区 not only rewards students who score the highest, but also the ones who have to fight to get where they are.聽 Bursaries like the Munroe-Blum award provides an opportunity to students from [modest means] to have a university experience similar to their peers.鈥�

Thanks to her financial freedom, Chlo茅 has been able to focus exclusively on her studies instead of splitting time between schoolwork and a part-time job, and she鈥檒l be heading to Scotland for an exchange program with the University of Glasgow in 2017. 鈥淭hat was inconceivable before,鈥� she said. She鈥檚 even beginning to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the big city. 鈥淲hen I went home for the holidays, I discovered I missed it!鈥�

Of course, as a professional thinker, Chlo茅 is already considering where her future might take her鈥攔ight 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.