Message from the Program Coordinator
Building bridges for student researchers
The Outstanding Scholars program helps high-achieving students become campus leaders through meaningful, paid undergraduate research experiences across the University of Windsor.
People often view university as a series of challenges—obstacles to overcome and barriers to navigate. In the novel Jude the Obscure, a working-class orphan named Jude dreams of entering the intellectual world of Christminster University (a fictional version of Oxford University). Jude imagines university as a place of connection, growth, and possibility. Yet fate casts Jude not as a scholar within its halls, but as a stonemason building the very walls that keep him out.
Brick by brick, Jude constructs both the physical and metaphorical barriers that stand between him and opportunity.
At the University of Windsor, the Outstanding Scholars program builds bridges rather than walls.
Outstanding Scholars is, proportionately, the largest interdisciplinary undergraduate research program in Canada, empowering students to work as paid research assistants across any faculty on campus. Every year, we engage 100 new Outstanding Scholars Candidates and over 85 full Outstanding Scholars.
Students in the full Outstanding Scholars program gain access to six paid research placements beginning in Year 2, allowing them to build an exceptional research portfolio well before applying to graduate programs or professional schools.
What students gain through Outstanding Scholars
- Paid research experience beginning in the second year
- Access to opportunities across every faculty on campus
- An interdisciplinary portfolio of research and leadership experience
- Early preparation for graduate, professional, and career pathways
- Experiences that extend locally and globally
The Outstanding Scholars program redefines what it means to be an interdisciplinary student researcher. Our students take advantage of opportunities across campus, across Canada, and around the world.
I invite you to visit us at our Open Houses and explore our student success stories in our campus news to learn more about this exciting community of scholars, leaders, and changemakers.
Dr. Tim Brunet (see biography)
