Savannah Forest
2015 Undergraduate Scholarship
Masters Student at University of Toronto, specializing in Civil Engineering

It was a gradual process throughout high school that Savannah realized civil engineering was what she wanted to do. “I picked civil engineering because it has very large-scale applications to the real world. I felt like it was a lot easier for me to see the applicability of it right from the beginning,” she says. Savannah believed that U. of T.’s engineering program was the best place for her to succeed.

During her undergraduate degree, Savannah chose to commit most of her time and energy into one main extracurricular activity. Savannah was Head of Lighting for Skule Nite, a theatre show ran by engineering students, throughout her entire undergraduate degree. “One of my big hobbies outside of engineering is theatre and backstage theatre especially,” she says. During the first year of her Master’s program at U. of T., Savannah held the position of Assistant Producer.

Savannah is very honoured to have been chosen for the Foundation for Education’s scholarship, “I was very proud that the work I had been doing had paid off and was being recognized. That gave me a lot of confidence that I didn’t have before. It allowed me to continue to pursue the things that I wanted to pursue instead of having to take on a part-time job during the school year.” By focusing on school and continuing to succeed academically, instead of taking on an additional job, Savannah believes that this allowed her, in part, to be accepted in her current master’s program.

In 2016, Savannah began a Masters of Applied Science in Structural Engineering at U. of T., where she focuses primarily on the structural response of reinforced concrete. After completing her degree, Savannah is open to exploring many different paths. “It is good to have a plan to make sure that I am motivated and working towards something but it is also important to be open to new opportunities when they come up,” she says.