2005 Trudeau Scholar

aliette.frank@trudeaufoundation.net

Post-Doctoral Scholar, School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University

Profile

"When I was first named as a Trudeau Doctoral Scholar, my plan was going to research sustainability in my home city and in various locations abroad. Within a matter of months of starting my research, however, I quickly learned that I needed a shift of focus; to ever ask anyone to consider me as an expert, let alone a leader on issues of sustainability, I had to learn what it meant to become sustainable myself. My involvement with the Trudeau Foundation was pivotal in even attempting this challenge. My experience as a Trudeau Doctoral Scholar was thus an experience as much about researching sustainability "out there," as it was about learning what sustainability meant to me on a personal level.

The Foundation provided me with far beyond what reads on this website. My greatest lessons, to my surprise, came not in what had initially drawn me to apply for the Doctoral Scholarship. It was through late-night phone calls about health matters with other Scholars, hand-written letters about poetry from Fellows, emails sending me happy birthday wishes and "We'd love to see your wedding pictures" from Staff, that I learned most about sustainability. The members of the Trudeau Foundation always seemed open to possibilities, no matter how different they may have been. Having an environment in which people openly receive different ways of knowing, regardless of how drastically these ways of knowing may diverge from others' personal perspectives, is a true gem.

In sum, my scholarship was so much more than what I could possibly write in a dissertation or speak about as a Scholar. My hope now, thanks to the experience of a Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship, is to help others find what sustainability-whatever that may be- means to them."

Trudeau Foundation Themes

People and their Natural Environment »