Four deserving students have received this year’s Sir William Stephenson and Dr. and Mrs. Roderick Hunter Scholarships. With over six decades of history and a rich compliment of successful recipients between the two, these prestigious awards are given to some of UWinnipeg’s most talented student leaders and volunteers.
“The Hunter and Stephenson scholarships are two of the largest awards we help administer each year,” says Javier Schwersensky, President and CEO of the University of Winnipeg Foundation. “I’m always amazed by the caliber of those our trustees select as recipients, and I want to congratulate the four students selected this year on a job well done.”
Sir William Stephenson Scholarship
Esmé Franck and Adi Keynan are this year’s recipients of the Sir William Stephenson Scholarship, which is awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement, superior leadership qualities on or off campus, and display the potential to make a valuable contribution to Canada.
Esmé Franck
Neuroscience major Esmé Franck got her start in the lab as part of Dr. Sanoji Wijenayake’s research team and has also worked with Dr. Sara Good as a research assistant.
“The undergraduate research opportunities that I have been afforded over the last five years while I’ve been studying at UWinnipeg have been amazing,” she said.
Franck is also a member of Dr. Benjamin Lindsey’s cell science laboratory at the University of Manitoba and has been working with Dr. Britt Drögemöller to identify therapeutic drugs that could help prevent hearing loss caused by certain cancer treatments.
As part of Manitoba Underdogs, Franck volunteers to help transport medicine and recent rescues to adoption events to help them find new homes. She also volunteers with U-turn Parkinson’s, where she puts her boxing skills to work helping lead fitness classes for those living with the condition.
Franck has now been accepted into the Physiology and Biophysics Masters Program at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, where she will start in the fall.
Adi Keynan
Fifth-year Honours Psychology student Adi Keynan has spent her undergraduate career working alongside inner-city communities and helping UWinnipeg researchers better understand the challenges faced by our city’s homeless population as well as those in Manitoba living with HIV.
Keynan works as a research assistant under Dr. Bev Fredborg at UWinnipeg’s HEART Lab, which aims to understand how HIV impacts people living in Manitoba—particularly mothers and their families.
She is also a project manager for the Canadian Crime and Homelessness Study, where she recruits participants, conducts and transcribes interviews, and codes data for this multi-institutional project.
“It’s been a very fulfilling experience,” she said, “and I’m proud of the headway we’ve made in advancing our understanding of the complex psychosocial experiences and daily challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness.”
Keynan will be graduating this summer and continuing her education at the University of Manitoba in the Clinical Psychology Master’s Program. In the future, she hopes to work toward improving mental health supports in Manitoba.
Dr. and Mrs. Roderick Hunter Scholarships
This year’s Dr. and Mrs. Roderick Hunter Scholarships went to Kyra Hodges and Taylor Cangemi. These scholarships are awarded to undergraduate students with high academic standing, outstanding leadership qualities, and significant extracurricular involvements on campus.
Kyra Hodges
Fifth-year UWinnipeg Neuroscience major Kyra Hodges has spent her volunteer career learning the ropes at some of Manitoba’s busiest hospitals. A hopeful future medical student, Hodges has logged an impressive 700 hours of clinical healthcare experience across the Grace Hospital, Misericordia Health Center, and the Health Sciences Center.
For nearly two years, she has been working as a research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Yannick Molgat-Seon and Dr. Natalie Richer in their respiratory physiology lab. Hodges has also made a positive impact on campus as a member of the University of Winnipeg Students of Science Association and University of Winnipeg Biology Students Association, where she helps support STEM-focused events.
“The relationships I’ve been able to form with my professors and the research opportunities I’ve been afforded as a result of these connections have been incredible,” she said.
Hodges plans to enroll in the Max Rady Medical College at the University of Manitoba after graduating this summer.
Taylor Cangemi
Taylor Cangemi is an Honours Biology student who has spent her academic career immersed in the world of wildlife conservation. Between Wesmen volleyball seasons, she’s been hard at work studying bat populations as a research assistant in Dr. Craig Willis’ UWinnipeg Bat Lab.
In 2023, Cangemi became the second winner of the Susan A. Thompson Scholarship for Women in Leadership, while in 2024 she was the recipient of the Sir William Stephenson Scholarship. Now, Cangemi has added the Dr. and Mrs. Roderick Hunter Scholarship to her list of accolades.
“Balancing a demanding Honours thesis and academic workload, field research, and athletics has required discipline and resilience,” she said. “This recognition reassures me that those efforts have mattered. They remind me that I have been supported by a community that believes in my potential, and that’s something I don’t take lightly.”
After graduation, Cangemi plans to fulfill a long-standing dream of pursuing professional volleyball opportunities in Europe, and intends to pursue a research-based master’s degree beginning in Fall 2027.
