Cannon Lachapelle Award in Entrepreneurial Thinking
This $10,000 award recognizes four undergraduate students who embody entrepreneurial thinking.
About the award
The Cannon Lachapelle Award in Entrepreneurial Thinking is for undergraduate students who embody ingenuity and entrepreneurial thinking in their work and study. The successful applicants will demonstrate creativity and innovation in new ways of doing, helping, thinking, and supporting the UCalgary campus community and beyond. Applications for this award open in May each year, and all disciplines are welcome to apply.
The award was created in 2019 with a generous donation from Dr. M. Elizabeth Cannon and Dr. Gérard Lachapelle, with the aim of supporting the future of UCalgary undergraduate students by incorporating entrepreneurial thinking in their education experiences.
One $10,000 award is for an Embedded Certificate in Entrepreneurial Thinking student. The other three $10,000 awards are for returning undergraduate students in any discipline.
More information
“The Cannon Lachapelle Award is not only to reward some of the best ingenuity by undergraduate students, but is also a vehicle to highlight the growing, impactful innovation community at the University of Calgary. Their innovation and creativity, along with potential impact of their entrepreneurial ideas, provide tremendous inspiration for the future of our city and province.”
Dr. Elizabeth Cannon
President Emerita, University of Calgary
Past winners
“This opportunity provides me with enough capital to not have to worry about getting through the year financially, and take leaps and bounds toward innovation.”
Tanmoy Newaz
Faculty of Science
“Entrepreneurial thinking means creating creative solutions for the communities that you are passionate about."
Cassie Wood
Cumming School of Medicine
“When I think of entrepreneurial thinking, I like to think of it as the ability to recognize a problem no matter how big or small it is and seize it as an opportunity for innovation."
Shubh Patel
Cumming School of Medicine
“The financial support provided by this award would show someone like me, who wasn’t really entrepreneurially inclined at the beginning, where a bit of exploration of entrepreneurial thinking would get me.”
Rigel Tormon
Schulich School of Engineering
Key information
Did we miss your question? Email us directly at hunterhub@ucalgary.ca to let us know how we can help, and we'll get back to you with answers.
This award is open to all returning undergraduate students across all faculties at the University of Calgary. A minimum 2.60 GPA is required.
One $10,000 award is for an Embedded Certificate in Entrepreneurial Thinking student. The other three $10,000 awards are for returning undergraduate students in any discipline.
To submit your application, please send your name, faculty, program, and graduation year and your answers to the questions below as a Word document to hunterhub@ucalgary.ca, and name the document as follows: Cannon Lachapelle Award 2023_Last name First name.doc. Deadline is Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. MST.
There is a strict 1000-word limit for the total submission (all answers to the questions).
- The University of Calgary defines entrepreneurial thinking as “being creative in finding innovative solutions. It involves taking initiative, exchanging knowledge across disciplines, being resourceful, and learning from experience.”
- What does entrepreneurial thinking mean to you and how have you been entrepreneurial during your time at UCalgary?
- Have you engaged with the entrepreneurial thinking supports at UCalgary? List any entrepreneurial thinking activities including relevant courses, co-curricular programs, events, and competitions.
- How will this award help you advance your entrepreneurial thinking journey and educational and professional goals?
- Describe a challenge or problem that you have been working on understanding and solving to improve lives and benefit society. The problem or challenge could be from a research project, the creation of/participation in a social enterprise, startup or campus initiative, a social innovation project via a community organization or working with a government entity, and/or an intrapreneurship (innovation within an organization) example.
- What is the problem or challenge you identified and how did you identify and validate it?
- How did you deepen your knowledge of the problem or challenge? What research has been done?
- What solutions did you come up and why did you choose the solution you are working on?
- What partnership/s have you/will you pursue and why?
- What impact have you had to date? Or, if just starting out, what impact could this solution have?
- Where are you in your development of the solution and what are the next steps?
- One of the four awards available in the 2023-2024 academic year is for an Embedded Certificate in Entrepreneurial Thinking. Have you requested that the Embedded Certificate in Entrepreneurial Thinking be added to your program by emailing undergraduate@haskayne.ucalgary.ca? (Yes or no)
If you have any questions about the award or the application process, please email hunterhub@ucalgary.ca.