Process

You may notify your candidate as soon as they have been selected; however, remember that they will not be confirmed as a scholarship recipient, and will not receive the scholarship award, until they have submitted the required information and deliverables.

Each scholarship recipient will receive a digital certificate recognizing their achievement. The certificate will be emailed to the candidate when they are nominated. If you would like the certificate to be emailed to you, instead, so that you may present it to the recipient, please contact the Scholarship Coordinator.

2024 Scholarship Program

The nomination period is from January 15 to April 15, 2024. Institutions may submit their candidate’s name and email address at any time during this period.

If you will be unable to select a candidate before the end of this period, you must contact the Scholarship Coordinator at Esri Canada as soon as possible to arrange for an extension. No candidates will be accepted after June 1, 2024. Any institution that fails to name a candidate by June 1 will forfeit their scholarship for 2024.

Institutions are asked to provide only their candidate’s name and email address.

Personal Information

The candidate must provide the following personal information:

• Legal name
• Full residential address, including apartment number if applicable
• Telephone number
• Primary email address
• Educational institution
• Department, school or faculty name
• Enrolment program
• Expected graduation year

The following information is optional:

• Preferred name (i.e., a name that they are known by other than their legal name)
• Student’s alternative email address (e.g., if their primary address is an institution email, they may provide an alternative address that can be used after graduation)
• Supervisor’s name
• Expected completion term (fall, winter, spring/summer)

Supporting Documents

In addition to the information listed above, four documents must be submitted before the candidate can be confirmed as a scholarship recipient:

• Supporting documents:
  • Resume/CV
  • Academic transcript (unofficial transcripts are acceptable)
• Deliverables:
  • Poster
  • Report

It is the candidate’s responsibility to provide these documents. Institutions should not submit any documents, particularly any documents containing personal information such as address and phone number, without the candidate’s express written permission. All documents should be submitted electronically through the scholars web portal. Hard copies are not required. Note that the candidate will not be confirmed as a scholarship recipient and will not receive the award until all the required information and documents are received.

Before the close of the nomination period, your institution’s scholarship contact person or their delegate must send the candidate’s name and email address to the Scholarship Coordinator along with a statement confirming that the candidate meets the general criteria. Your institution’s scholarship contact person may also choose to notify or congratulate your scholarship candidate directly.

The Scholarship Coordinator will contact the candidate at the email address provided to inform them that they have been selected, and that they must provide certain required information and documents to receive the scholarship.

Refer to the list of required information and documents and the dates for the nomination period.

In most cases, a cheque will be mailed directly to the student.

Please contact the Scholarship Coordinator to make alternative arrangements for your institution. Other options include:

• Cheque made payable to the student but mailed to the institution to be presented during an awards ceremony.
• Cheque made payable to the student but mailed to the institution and withheld until the student submits the required deliverables.
• Cheque made payable to and sent to the institution, to be disbursed to the student by the institution.
• Electronic Funds Transfer to the institution, to be disbursed to the student by the institution.

Note that there may be delays with issuing and mailing cheques.

Students receiving cash payments directly from Esri Canada will need to provide their Social Insurance Number, through a secure process, for income tax purposes. A T4A slip will be issued to the student at the beginning of the following calendar year.

Process

Each participating institution is responsible for selecting one candidate to receive the scholarship. Faculty may employ any criteria deemed appropriate at their institution, provided the general criteria are met. The selection process may involve automatic consideration of all students in a cohort or require interested students to submit an application.

Eligbility

Esri Canada does not place any restrictions on eligibility, aside from the general criteria. Candidates may be enrolled in any faculty or school and in any program, including bachelor, masters and PhD degree programs, and college certificate, diploma and post-graduate programs.

Confirmation

The selected candidate will be confirmed as a scholarship recipient once all the required information and documents, including the deliverables, have been received by the Scholarship Coordinator at Esri Canada.

Students receiving a cash-only award, aka GIS Award recipients, must provide the same information and supporting documents as scholarship recipients. They must also submit evidence of their use of Esri technology, either through a poster, a story map or an app.

No. Only one student can be awarded a GIS Scholarship per institution per year.

However, institutions may choose to split the cash portion of the award between more than one student. A student receiving cash only will be referred to as an Esri Canada Higher Education GIS Award recipient. Institutions wishing to split the cash award must contact the Scholarship Coordinator prior to submitting their candidate’s and award recipient’s information.

Each candidate must submit a poster and a report demonstrating their use of Esri technology in a special project, lab work, or interesting research use in a specific setting (e.g., promoting education, conservation, disaster response, urban planning, business, engineering, social science, etc.). Information about the required format is available online through the scholars web portal and can also be requested from the Scholarship Coordinator.

The poster and report must be received by June 1. A candidate will not be confirmed as a scholarship recipient and the award will not be processed until these documents have been received. Requests for exceptions or extensions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If a candidate has not submitted the required deliverables AND has not arranged for an extension by June 1, they will forfeit their scholarship.

Candidates are encouraged to submit their report as a story map or as an app that includes information about its usage and purpose, instead of a formal written report . The story map or app must be shared to the Esri Canada GIS Scholarship Recipients group in ArcGIS Online and preferably be shared publicly. Note that candidates must submit a poster regardless of the format they choose for the report.

Esri Canada requires that award recipients meet the following criteria:

• Minimum B+ or equivalent average in overall GPA.
• Have completed significant course work and/or postgraduate research using Esri technology.

Please contact the Scholarship Coordinator if you have any questions about how these criteria should be applied.

Although not required, it is recommended that all institutions include a poster in their selection criteria so that the selected candidate may submit it to Esri Canada with the other required information when they are notified that they have been selected. This would allow the candidate to be immediately confirmed as a scholarship recipient.