Sustainable Buildings Canada is pleased to announce that in 2021 we will be supporting 3 college students in the pursuit of their educational goals. After a review of potential candidates, SBC has selected the following individuals as recipients of a $1,000 bursary:
Elsa Le – M.Arch. student at Dessau International Architecture, Germany.
Hannah Villeneuve- Third-year undergraduate studying Environmental Engineering at Carleton University.
Erika Ponce Acosta- Project Management Environmental Graduate Certificate – Seneca College
How does the bursary program work?
Candidates for the bursary must be enrolled in a post-secondary education institution and provide proof of acceptance and enrolment. Programs eligible for the bursary should be focused in engineering, environmental, building science and planning, or trades training that support those disciplines, however candidates in other disciplines that support the industry in areas such as policy, law and finance are also be considered. Candidates should have demonstrated an interest in pursuing a career in the sector and have experience volunteering or supporting SBC programs and initiatives. The Board of SBC selects candidates at its sole discretion on the basis of recommendations from stakeholders, partners and academia.
Read more about this year’s successful candidates:
Elsa Le
Elsa Le is currently a M.Arch. student at Dessau International Architecture, in Germany. With a strong drive and enthusiasm about shifting architecture towards a sustainable future, she actively seeks to pursue and address buildings’ environmental performance, energy efficiency, and resilience of communities in the field of green construction. With a Bachelor degree in Biology specializing in Ecology and Environment, and a second one in Architecture from the University of Montréal, in Canada, she worked extensively in Indonesia, Argentina, Germany, and China. These professional experiences solidified practical insights into how different parts of the world deal with resilient buildings’ and with urban spaces’ design strategies, as well as emerging green technologies.
Hannah Villeneuve
Hannah Villeneuve is a third-year undergraduate studying Environmental Engineering at Carleton University. She is interested in learning more about making buildings more sustainable, functional for occupants, and resilient in the face of climate change and hopes to pursue graduate studies in this field. The past two summers, she has assisted with research related to the built environment and sustainability. In 2019, she researched indoor environmental quality in Canadian homes by text-mining Airbnb reviews. In 2020, she and an interdisciplinary team of researchers explored changes to residential energy usage among teleworkers after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. When she is not studying, Hannah can be found biking, gardening, playing piano, and spending time with family.
Erika Ponce Acosta
Erika Ponce is currently a student of the Project Management Environmental (PME) program in Seneca College. She has always been passionate about sustainability and environmental projects that help reduce in any way the effects of climate change within the community. With a background in Environmental Engineering, completed at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, she participated as the main author of the research on the “Optimization of a Gas Chromatography Methodology for Biodiesel Analysis”, just recently published in the Journal of Analytical Chemistry, where a cost-effective methodology for biodiesel characterization was developed. Having acquired some experience in the Municipal Sector of her city, she knows how important project planning is, which is why she expects to keep learning about it and gain enough experience to integrate sustainability in the management of diverse projects and contribute to Canada’s vision of a more sustainable and green future.
