Three UCalgary students recognized by McCall MacBain Awards this year

The University of Calgary is proud to announce two of its students have been selected as finalists for the McCall MacBain Scholarship and a third student received an Alberta regional award.

Ratik Kapoor, an engineering student, and Tatiana Mackeigan, a science student, were selected from 700 candidates across Canada. As finalists, they are candidates to receive one of 20 scholarships that will cover the full cost of their education in a full-time master’s or professional program at McGill University in Montreal. Ganiyat Sadiq received an Alberta Regional Award valued at $5,000 for use at any public university in Canada.

Meet the finalists

Ratik Kapoor

Ratik Kapoor is an electrical engineering student with a passion for technology and computers.

He founded the Relectric Car Team, a Students’ Union club launched in 2019, to research affordable electric vehicles and served as executive lead. He provided mentorship and guidance while the club swapped out a gas engine with an electric engine on an existing car. As a student with the Advanced Biofabrication Laboratory, he was responsible for designing the electrical and software systems needed to support a COVID-19 rapid test using saliva.

Within the university community, he helped create many opportunities to enhance the experience of fellow students and is heavily involved in the Schulich engineering program. He’s the current president of the Engineering Students’ Society, and has organized many social and professional events. He is also a member of the university’s Scholars Academy. He’s earned several distinctions at UCalgary including a President’s Admission Scholarship, the Jason Lang Scholarship three times, and Schulich engineering’s Dean’s List.

Tatiana MacKeigan

Growing up with a loved one who has a neurodegenerative disease, Tatiana MacKeigan was sure neuroscience and medical research was the right path for her. The neuroscience honours student has spent the last two summers working and learning in two different labs on campus, both with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases.

MacKeigan has found great value in developing a sense of community wherever she is. She’s a community ambassador in her residence, VP Events on the Student of the Arts and Science Honours Academy, a role she’s held for the last three years, and she’s the fourth-year representative for the Neuroscience Students Association.

Distinctions include the Faculty of Science Dean’s List and being awarded the Arts and Science Honours Academy Entrance Scholarship.

In the community, she is a founding member and secretary of BackUp YYC Foundation, an organization committed to making education more accessible, and she fundraises for a local non-profit every year.

Meet our regional award winner

Ganiyat Sadiq

Ganiyat Sadiq has advocated and shown leadership on issues ranging from anti-racism activism and gender equality to anti-Islamophobia activism. She’s completing a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in both honours political science and international relations. She explains her activism as a way for her to recognize the privileges she has and to speak up and advocate for those who are silenced.

Sadiq sat on the Students’ Union Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Taskforce, the Inclusion and Equity Student Council, the International Relations Club, and the African-Caribbean Student Association. She was also runner-up for the Office of the Vice-Provost Libraries and Cultural Resources Award at the Students’ Union Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2019.

Her advocacy has extended outside the university and includes co-founding and serving as the co-executive officer of the Black Inclusion Association. Her non-profit established the Post-Secondary Application Bursary, which supports three Black high school students in Alberta transitioning to post-secondary education.

Scholarships announced in April

Up to 20 Canadian students, including permanent residents and refugees, are chosen each year as McCall MacBain Scholars. The announcement of the selected students will be made in April.

UCalgary students who are interested in applying for a McCall MacBain Scholarship in 2023 are encouraged to attend an information session on March 2. Students can also connect with Dr. Jared Secord, PhD, co-ordinator of Scholars Programs in the Student Success Centre.