SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship recipient: Kristin Maich

“It was very exciting to recently receive a SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship!

“I began preparing the application in summer 2015, prior to beginning my PhD. At that time, developing the application was a lengthy process, particularly the research proposal component. Developing a project that is both sophisticated and explainable within the concise SSHRC format was challenging and required a number of iterations before it was finalized. 

“When I came to apply for the 2017-18 academic year, it was much less time-consuming as I already had a number of materials from the previous year’s application. As such, I probably spent some time each day over the course of about a week revising my application. 

“I believe it was helpful to have a number of publications and presentations on my resumé and once the university decided to forward my application to the council, it was very helpful to receive feedback from the research grants office in the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation on suggestions to improve the application. 

“I selected referees who could best speak to my research abilities: specifically my graduate supervisor, who has overseen my master’s thesis and other research projects, and my thesis internal committee member, with whom I met several times to develop that project. 

“This award will be extremely helpful in the coming years as I will be able to focus on my research and coursework, and can opt out of TAing, which though rewarding, is time consuming. In addition, because the award lasts for three years, there is less pressure to graduate from the PhD on time, thereby providing me with additional time to complete my dissertation and other requirements if necessary.” 

Kristin Maich, Psychology PhD student, 2017 SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship recipient