Elizabeth Orr wins Dr. Margaret Black Ontario Graduate Scholarship
Sep 7, 2017
Guylaine Spencer
Above: Susan Jack, Elizabeth Orr, Margaret Black, Nancy Carter
Elizabeth Orr, a graduate student in the McMaster School of Nursing, has won the “Dr. Margaret Black Ontario Graduate Scholarship”. The award honours a former nursing professor at McMaster.
Orr is in her second year of the Nursing PhD program. “Thanks to Dr. Black's generosity,” she says, “I will be able to focus on my research exploring the experiences of young mothers with newborns admitted to the NICU as they transition from hospital to home. Moving from being a practicing nurse in the clinical environment to academic/nurse scientist has many challenges. While most people focus on the adjustment to student life in terms of papers and deadlines, the financial impact cannot be underestimated. Many nurses who return to McMaster for their graduate studies leave full-time employment and count on the generous support of donors like Dr. Black.”
Dr. Susan Jack is Orr’s thesis supervisor. “For nurses who return to graduate school, a scholarship is invaluable in supporting them to be able to focus on their academic work and research. I am so grateful to Dr. Margaret Black for her generosity. With her donation to the graduate scholarship fund, this allows recipient Elizabeth Orr to develop her innovative research study,” says Jack.
Dr. Margaret Black, the award donor, taught at McMaster from 1983 to her retirement in 2011. “The scholarship is to be awarded to a graduate student in the Faculty of Health Sciences,” says Black, “with a preference for students enrolled in nursing. My hope was that it be used to support excellent PhD students, for whom funding is often a challenge.”
Dr. Sandra Carroll, the Associate Dean, Nursing, notes that that the school is “so grateful to Margaret for this targeted support for our graduate students. During her time at McMaster, Margaret was the Coordinator of the Graduate Studies in Nursing, Nurse Researcher, an Associate Professor, a Clinical Nurse Consultant, and the Assistant Dean of the Graduate Nursing Programs. She was a valuable, well respected member of the School of Nursing and continues to make an impact through her generosity.”
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