A PhD student at UNBC has been awarded the Vanier Scholarship for her research on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and how they are relevant to populations and communities along the Nechako Watershed and Niger Delta in Nigeria.
Christiana Onabola’s scholarship is valued at $50,000 per year for the next three years.
“I am excited that this funding will, no iota of doubt, offer substantial supports and tremendous possibilities for my proposed two-country research project, which is expected to engage with specific SDGs stakeholders across scales.
“The funding will enhance my research productivity by being able to take on necessary technological supports and needed resources, participate in conferences, and, in the ultimate, potentially develop granular data tools at the scale of watersheds that can localize the SDGs and bring their metrics closer to reflecting social, environmental and health inequities in remote communities that often go unreflected, unreported and unmonitored.”
Onabola is part of the Environment, Community, and Health Observatory Network at UNBC.
So far, Onabola has defended her qualifying paper, put out a preliminary publication, and hopes to defend her thesis proposal this fall.