Guelph - A University of Guelph student has been named among the top five undergraduate engineering students in Canada by the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation (CEMF). Madavine Tom, a third-year environmental engineering student, was awarded a 2009 CEMF undergraduate engineering scholarship in recognition of her accomplishments. The scholarships were created to honour the memory of the 14 women who were slain at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in 1989 and to encourage women to choose a career in engineering.

Recipients are chosen for being community leaders, active volunteers and role models, especially for girls and young women. The five scholarship winners will also promote engineering as a career through local schools and community programs. The $5,000 awards were handed out earlier this month at the annual general meeting of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers.

Tom is a member of the U of G chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a non-profit agency that helps people in developing communities gain access to technologies that will improve their lives. She was honoured for her volunteer work and for "continually sharing her passion with others, more specifically young women, to inspire them to take the less conventional path towards engineering," according to Suzelle Barrington, CEMF president.

"The Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation is proud to present these students with these well-deserved scholarships," said Barrington. "We have every confidence that each one of them will succeed in their future endeavours. There is no doubt that they are Canada's future engineering leaders."