From learning how to create more efficient solar panels to developing a produce-sharing app for community and backyard gardeners, a new scholarship is helping older Canadian students go back to school to help address environmental challenges.
2024 RBC Foundation Green Skills Scholarship recipients (left to right): Jake Sajko, Julietta Hernandez, Michael Vegh and Rachael Wootton.
Inspired by the farming lands of rural Nova Scotia and New Zealand, Halifax’s Jake Sajko will be focusing his studies in the University of Toronto’s Science in Sustainability Management program on addressing the impacts of climate change on food insecurity.
“My goal is to help develop a community agriculture app for backyard and community gardeners, to help them share what they produce with other gardeners in their communities with surplus produce, and in turn increase access to local, sustainable food,” said Sajko, who began his Master’s Degree this Fall. “The goal would also be to empower people with the right tools and knowledge to grow their own, more sustainable food.”
Sajko is one of forty Canadians who were announced as recipients of 2024 RBC Foundation Green Skills Scholarships. The $5,000 scholarships are designed to support adult learners who are interested in returning to education to achieve their goal of developing innovative solutions for pressing environmental challenges.
Here are three more recipients with plans to merge their careers with their passion for the environment:
Edmonton’s Julieta Hernandez, who studied physics as an undergrad, will now be pursuing a technical diploma in renewable energy at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Her goal is to help create more efficient solar panels.
“During my physics degree, I learned about how different materials can absorb and transmit different sections of the light spectrum,” said Hernandez. “This made me think about how much more efficient solar panels could be. I’d love to be part of the group that figures out a way to bring this idea to life in a cost effective way.”
Areas of study emphasized by the RBC Foundation Green Skills Scholarships include buildings and construction, agriculture and food production, transportation, waste management and recycling or renewable energy.
After experiencing the extreme heat that plagued her home in BC last summer, Rachael Wootton got inspired to go back to school and help make a difference. While pursuing a Master’s degree at Simon Fraser University’s School of Resource and Environmental Management (planning), Wootton aims to learn how to design and plan urban spaces that are more resilient to extreme heat.
“Unfortunately heat domes and periods of extreme heat are becoming a regular part of life, and something we need to prepare for in our urban communities,” said Wootton. “And this should be done equitably, as extreme heat events disproportionately impact marginalized and vulnerable communities. Even including things like expanding green space, conserving natural areas and restoring wetlands in an urban plan can improve a community’s resiliency to heat.”
Michael Vegh, who is from the Heiltsuk Nation in B.C., will be putting his RBC Foundation Green Skills Scholarship towards a Master of Business Administration Degree in Sustainable Innovation at the University of Victoria.
“My goal is to bring the sustainable worldviews of Indigenous nations into organizations” said Vegh, who has experience in environmental policy development with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council. “By bringing these worldviews into modern environmental policies, we can greatly increase the odds that new programs will be successful.”
Vegh’s long term goal is to help build a framework for sustainable development that reflects the needs and stewardship responsibilities of Indigenous communities across the country.
“As we work towards building a better future, we need skilled professionals to tackle the environmental challenges that threaten our collective prosperity,” said Thea Silver, Senior Director, Environmental Impact, RBC. “Through The RBC Foundation Green Skills Scholarship, we’re supporting adult students to continue their education in five greening sectors of Canada’s economy.”
The application portal for RBC Foundation Green Skills Scholarships will reopen May 1, 2025 to July 23, 2025.
Applicants must be adult learners over the age of 25 who are starting or returning to post-secondary studies to develop innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
Areas of study must be related to buildings and construction, agriculture and food production, transportation, waste management and recycling or renewable energy.
Applicants must be entering or enrolled in part-time or full-time studies at the Master’s degree (course-based or research-based), Advanced Diploma, Post-Graduate Diploma, Technical Diploma, or Post-Graduate Certificate levels in an eligible field of study.
Read more about the scholarship here.
