Schulich Leader credits scholarship for helping ignite her love of the innovation sector

Scholarships can make a significant difference for a university student. One person who can attest to this is Manpreet Deol, a fourth-year engineering student who, in 2015, received a Schulich Leader Scholarship valued at $80,000.

Since then, Deol has done research in southern Germany and Shanghai, created her own start-up company and, with a team of other UCalgary students, won an international engineering and commerce competition. She is also a member of UCalgary’s Scholars Academy, took part in the Women in Science and Engineering Club, and is currently an intern with Garmin’s innovation team.

Deol credits a lot of these opportunities to the Schulich Leaders Scholarship.

“The scholarship is really incredible,” she says. “The power of the network has provided unwavering support to leave my own mark in the community. It’s such a privilege to have. Without it, I wouldn’t have been as free to take the opportunities I did, which enriched my university experience.”

Deol earned the scholarship through her outstanding academic achievements — as well as her participation in the SHAD program at UCalgary, where she designed a wrist-worn medical device. SHAD gives exceptional high school students the opportunity to spend a month at a university in an immersive program of lectures, workshops, projects and activities designed to help them build their STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) skills.

Deol is currently studying mechanical engineering with a biomedical engineering specialization in the Schulich School of Engineering. During her time as a student, she has discovered her love for the innovation sector. Last year, she and a team of engineering and business students won the premier prize at the Engineering and Commerce Case Competition (ENGCOMM). Soon after, she joined 15 other UCalgary students on a Study Abroad trip to learn from entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, an experience that reaffirmed how much she enjoys thinking outside the box.

Deol is currently pursuing her love for all things novel with Garmin, specifically with the fitness division’s innovation team — where she is working on new technologies to allow users to monitor their health using wearable devices. Deol is also working on her own start-up project, a personalized service that picks up and drops off luggage for travellers who have a gap between their checkout and departure times, giving them more time to explore the place they are visiting.

Created in 2011 by Canadian business leader and philanthropist Seymour Schulich, the Schulich Leader Scholarship encourages promising high school graduates to embrace STEM in their future careers. UCalgary currently has eight Schulich Leaders enrolled in STEM programs.