Sheila Cranmer-Byng (Artsci’84) has spent much of her career wondering if she can make a difference. With the help of the Marty Memorial Scholarship, she now knows that she can.

She got her academic start at Queen’s University studying history as an undergraduate.

“I’ve always loved history,” Ms. Cranmer-Byng says, “but when I finished, I didn’t know what I would do with my degree.”

What she did know was that she cared deeply about social issues, so she forged a career in the non-profit sector.

One of her earliest jobs was at the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.

“I realized pretty quickly that providing food support wasn’t enough,” she says. “If we want to eliminate poverty, we have to address structural issues.”

To learn more about those issues, Ms. Cranmer-Byng immersed herself in them. She worked in a women’s shelter, at a literacy program, with people who were living in poverty and struggling with mental health issues, with new immigrants and as a funder of community organizations. The more she worked, the more she realized how much she had to learn. During her career she returned to school twice, earning a BSc in Environmental Studies and a Master’s in Education.

Ms. Cranmer-Byng took time off to work with an international education exchange in Indonesia and a freedom of expression group in Thailand. She came home recharged and inspired.

“I learned so much about the links between poverty, the environment, and politics,” she says. “I gained an appreciation for the importance of community organizing and activism.”

She also gained a new perspective on her homeland.

“I started noticing subtle, significant shifts away from democracy in Canada,” she says. “It made me want to do more.”

Hungry for more, yet disheartened by the limitations of the non-profit sector, Ms. Cranmer-Byng once again decided education was the answer. She entered the PhD program at McMaster University’s School of Social Work to study how anti-poverty groups are responding as governments slash so much of the funding they depend on.

Within a year, though, family pressures forced her to leave McMaster and take a job with the Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination.

“The experience reignited my curiosity about radical action,” she says. “Where has it gone? How can we encourage it?”

She went back to school to find out.

Ms. Cranmer-Byng hopes to learn the answer by studying a broader cross-section of anti-poverty groups than has been attempted to date.

“I want to expand a critical and progressive anti-poverty agenda,” she says.

The Marty Memorial Scholarship is helping Ms. Cranmer-Byng reach her goal.

“It has built my confidence,” she says. “Sometimes you feel like a small person in a big world and you wonder if your voice matters. Then someone recognizes you like this and you realize that you can speak out and work with others to make a difference.”

The Marty Memorial Scholarship, the Jean Royce Scholarship and the Alfred Bader Scholarship in Memory of Jean Royce are awarded annually to women graduates of Queen's for a year of study and research, or to pursue something that contributes to the advancement of knowledge or society, or allows creative expression. Canada's first woman public school inspector, Aletta Marty, MA 1894, LLD'1919, was a pioneer in the field of education. Her sister Sophia Marty, MA 1897, served as Head of the Department of Modern Language at Stratford Collegiate Institute. Jean Royce, BA’30, LLD’68, was the longest-serving Registrar in Queen's history (1933 to 1969) and had a profound influence on the lives of thousands of students. She also served as National President of the Alumnae Association, was a founder of the Ban Righ Foundation, Secretary of the Senate and a member of the Board of Trustees.

The deadline for applications is Feb. 15. Learn more about awards for alumnae at queensu.ca/studentawards. To contribute to one of these awards, visit givetoqueens.ca.