allison hanes: order of the white rose recipient reaches for the stars
makenna kuzyk, the first woman ever admitted to the international test pilots school, is the newest recipient of the bursary that honours the 14 women killed at polytechnique 35 years ago.
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gazing up at the heavens while camping in the rocky mountains as a child stoked makenna kuzyk’s curiosity about space and inspired her dream of becoming an astronaut.
now the 23-year-old has received an extraordinary lift on the way to reaching her lofty goals.
on monday kuzyk, a graduate in mechanical engineering from the university of alberta, became the newest recipient of the order of the white rose, a $50,000 bursary created to honour the 14 women murdered at polytechnique montréal on dec. 6, 1989. she was also welcomed into a powerful sisterhood intended to counter the dark aims of the gunman and bring forth light from the extinguished potential of those lost.
“whenever someone leaves our world, their impact endures,” she said, paying tribute to the 14 women whose torch she now carries.
kuzyk recently obtained her pilot’s licence and will pursue her master’s degree at the international test pilots school in london, ont., starting in january. she is the first woman and only the second civilian ever admitted.
michèle prévost, the chair of the selection jury, said kuzyk’s accomplishments gave her “goosebumps.”
“you broke the glass ceiling, pushing the boundaries for women in this field,” said prévost.
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“makenna stood out for her willingness to make others shine. that is a core value of our program. … she understood that changing the world starts with supporting and uplifting those around you.”
kuzyk is the 10th recipient of the order of the white rose, which was established on the 25th anniversary of the massacre that until recently held the record as canada’s worst mass killing. but on this, the 35th anniversary year, polytechnique president maud cohen announced that the award will be greatly expanded through a “major donation” from the mccall macbain foundation and a circle of benefactors. starting next year, the bursary will be granted to 14 women in engineering each year to honour the 14 women slain.
michèle thibodeau-deguire, one of the godmothers of the order, called it “an exclusive group of extraordinary women from across canada.”
thibodeau-deguire was the first woman to graduate in civil engineering from polytechnique, in 1963. she was working in public relations for the engineering school in 1989 and hid under her desk the night of the shooting.
“the order of the white rose expresses a powerful commitment: helping women with outstanding potential to shine,” thibodeau-deguire said in handing kuzyk the prize that now bears her name. “reach high! you’re capable! don’t give up! that’s what we tell our girls.”
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nathalie provost, the other godmother of the order, recalled how she was “devastated” and “diminished” after she was shot and injured the night of the murders.
“thirty-five years ago, on dec. 2, 1989, i was a determined young woman who felt all the doors would open for me. but as you all know, the door was slammed in my face on dec. 6,” provost said, speaking at the ceremony.
she reiterated the message she summoned journalists to her hospital bedside to bear witness to just two days later, on dec. 8, 1989: “girls, we need you. … if you want to help build the world, come — come study engineering.”
provost called kuzyk and two previous recipients in attendance “beacons of hope.”
“it seems like nothing in the world can hold you back. you fly high in the sky,” provost told kuzyk. “i know you’ll fly high to show us paths that we cannot see from here.”
makenna kuzyk is the 10th recipient of the order of the white rose, created in the memory of the 14 women murdered in the 1989 polytechnique massacre.
allen mcinnis
/
montreal gazette
kuzyk has pushed the limits of male-dominated fields and thrived, whether playing on the basketball court, earning her blue belt in brazilian jiu-jitsu — or getting her pilot’s licence in san francisco in recent weeks.
“funny thing through flight training: in regulations still today, it will say ‘he.’ like it’s always a ‘he’ when they’re referring to a person,” kuzyk recalled in an interview last week with the gazette. “i remember flying with my instructor, and pilots, they talk to each other to try and locate where you are. and another pilot was like, ‘i can’t see him, where is he?’ and my flight instructor went on the radio and said: ‘it’s a girl — it’s a she.’ and when he said that, i felt really supported by my instructor. but it also made me reflect how very little female pilots there are, how little female astronauts there are. it’s something i definitely want to change.”
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as the only woman in her aerodynamics class at the u of a, kuzyk founded a team, mission spacewalker, that became the first all-woman group to participate in the canadian reduced gravity experiment. their project put electro-adhesive pads on the wheels of a robot to see if it would stick to surfaces while in microgravity.
but more than the knowledge gleaned from the experiment, kuzyk enjoyed the outreach, which included presenting some of their findings to a grade 3 class.
“i learned a lot about how the impact isn’t just technical,” she said. “even though we published in a magazine, which was really cool, the biggest accomplishment i felt was seeing the look on the kids’ faces.
“i remember we went into a room, we did this presentation on space and then we asked them: ‘who wants to be an astronaut?’ and every third-grader, every single kid, put up their hand.”
kuzyk intends to focus on microgravity for her master’s thesis at the international test pilots school, a step on the path toward becoming an astronaut.
during her undergraduate studies, kuzyk did internships at the national research council flight research laboratory and the canadian space agency. there, she worked out in the gym next to canadian astronaut david saint-jacques and spent her breaks in mission control, getting the latest updates from the international space station.
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“other than the job experience, which technically was amazing, career-wise it really opened my eyes that being an astronaut is making your own path,” she said. “i want the future me to be not what everyone else is telling me to do, but what i make it for myself.”
the order of the white rose was established in the names of geneviève bergeron; hélène colgan; nathalie croteau; barbara daigneault; anne-marie edward; maud haviernick; barbara-maria klucznik-widajewicz; maryse laganière; maryse leclair; anne-marie lemay; sonia pelletier; michèle richard; annie st-arneault; and annie turcotte.
although she had heard about the killings at polytechnique when she was younger, kuzyk was struck by the gravity when she saw a book that told the 14 women’s stories.
“i remember seeing their faces and reading their names and thinking harder about how they were my age and they lost their lives. they must have had so many big dreams. that was kind of the first time i thought about it on a deeper level,” she said. “for me, i really want to do something bigger than myself in my life. and for me, that means helping space become accessible to everyone and allowing people to have those big dreams that are way past the sky, shooting for the stars, as far as they can, as i’m sure they were.”
