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By Robie Liscomb
Newbury. Photo: Graham Lavery PhD student Janet Newbury (child and youth care) has been awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship—the most sought-after Canadian scholarship for doctoral students.
The federal government scholarships, awarded for the first time this year, provide $50,000 a year for up to three years to 166 doctoral students from across Canada and abroad. They are intended to attract and retain world-class doctoral students. Their value and prestige put the Vanier Scholarships on par with such highly regarded awards as the Rhodes scholarships in the UK and the Fulbright scholarships in the US.
Newbury’s research project, “Contextualizing care: Alternatives to the individualization of struggles and support,” will focus on how an emphasis on social justice—not just individualized care—might alter Canadian approaches to helping children and families.
“Most of our initiatives seem to focus on providing services for particular individuals who are struggling, whether it be because of experiences of abuse, addiction, mental illness, poverty, or otherwise,” Newbury explains. “But these individuals are most often not random. For instance, women, children, and Aboriginal people are often highly represented. If contributing to the well-being of children and families is the goal, then perhaps addressing inequitable social conditions is a good place to start.
“I’ve always loved working with children and youth,” says the Newfoundland native. “In high school I worked at camps in the summer; most of my work experience is with kids.” Newbury earned a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Ottawa and then taught English in Japan, worked at a girls’ home and a school in Jamaica, and volunteered at an orphanage in Vietnam. “That led me to do a diploma in child and youth care at Nova Scotia Community College. Then I worked in group homes in Calgary and also as a family initiatives counsellor in Valemount, BC, before coming to UVic for my master’s,” she says.
“Janet is one of those students that faculty love to work with,” says her supervisor Dr. Marie Hoskins. “She is a gifted writer, has a brilliant mind, an unwavering work ethic an—as if these attributes are not enough—she also has an astute sense of social justice and professional responsibility to those who need support and care.”
“I feel extremely grateful for this scholarship,” says Newbury. “It is both a really amazing opportunity and a responsibility at the same time. It provides an opportunity to really try my best to make a contribution to the field. I now have three years to focus my energy in this direction, with lots of support.
“Basically, the scholarship allows me to treat this research as a full-time job, rather than trying to do it off the side of my desk at the end of the day,” she explains. “This will enable me to be much more thorough and attentive to detail. I would like to do research on two levels. One level involves understanding trends in service delivery for children and families, drawing from data collected by various government ministries and NGOs, for example. The other involves understanding the implications of interventions in the lives of children and families. This will include conducting interviews and focus groups. Of course, there are costs involved in pursuing both these lines of research, and the scholarship will really help with those.”
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