Ruby Sinclair, Sc’27, has received the inaugural Claudette Mackay-Lassonde Scholarship, a $25,000 award created to support women in their second or third year of undergraduate engineering studies in Canada.
The scholarship is named for Claudette Mackay-Lassonde, the first female president of the Professional Engineers Ontario and a founder of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).
“As I learned more about the scholarship, I got really intrigued about this incredible woman,” says Sinclair. “She was exactly the type of person that I am striving to become. I also grew up attending a francophone school in Kingston, so to combine the French engineering community with the English side that I have at Queen’s, and especially when you consider the legacy that Polytechnique has had… it just pulled at my heart.”
Sinclair is entering her third year of studies at Smith Engineering in Mechanical Engineering. She is also involved in Queen's Biomedical Innovation Team (QBIT) as the club’s incoming chief technical officer, and as a project manager with student-run consultancy CREO Solutions, while previously contributing to Queen's Women in Science and Engineering as a student mentor.
In awarding the scholarship, Polytechnique Montreal noted Sinclair’s leadership mindset, her academic and extracurricular achievements, her advocacy for women in engineering, and her humility.
“Early on I decided I wanted to study engineering because it's really a way of thinking,” she says. “I knew I wanted to build something and create tangible solutions to a problem. When I looked at almost all the physical infrastructure around me, it has all been at least contributed to by an engineer and, to me, that was very inspiring.”
Sinclair decided on Smith Engineering after researching the program and noticing its focus on developing well-rounded graduates with an emphasis on extracurriculars as well as academics. She also received support and encouragement from a female graduate who spent two hours talking about the advantages of the Smith Engineering program.
“For any young girls, or just any kids in general looking to go into science, do it,” she says. “Engineering is a way of thinking. It teaches you how to break down problems into digestible components, making it possible to create a tangible solution. This is a skill that is fundamental to life, no matter what the vocation, and that is why I think we should be encouraging more women and students to pursue engineering.”
As she prepares for her third year, Sinclair is gearing up for possible careers in aerospace and energy, anticipating those sectors will continue to grow and become more important in the years ahead. Over the long-term, she hopes to lead and consult to help bring together motivated and skilled teams to achieve larger visions.
“I recently had the chance to visit a number of tech startups, including one in aerospace,” she says. “It’s just incredible to see such a massive team of engineers building this physical product and achieving something that is going to have so many benefits for people globally.”
Sinclair received the news that she would receive the Claudette Mackay-Lassonde Scholarship while overseas in Korea as part of the Cansbridge Fellowship she recently received. Following the presentation of the scholarship on August 5, Sinclair delivered a summer camp physics workshop to a group of 11- to 13-year-old girls at Polytechnique Montréal.
