Applications for Catamount Open August 1st!

 

 

 

 

 

Attend our virtual session about the Student Changemaker Certificate, the Catamount Fellowship, and other student learning opportunities in how to navigate complex issues impacting people and the planet. RSVP today to attend.

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Catamount is a cohort-based learning experience for senior-level undergraduate students at Mount Royal University to work in an interdisciplinary collaboration on a community-identified complex social and/or environmental issue.

Catamount is one part community-partnered research and one part transformational learning. Diving into social innovation frameworks, experiential learning and deep listening with community, students explore the root causes of community-identified ecological, social, economic, and cultural issues.

Fellows are senior level undergraduate students studying across academic disciplines. Student fellows partner directly with community partners working to address a complex social and/or environmental issue affecting Calgarians and those living in and across Treaty 7 and with faculty mentors who support students with their research in a mentorship capacity.

 

 

 

Building on the Student Changemaker Certificate Program offered in the Fall Semester, Student Fellows in the Winter Semester will collaborate across sectors and boundaries to engage multiple stakeholders, accelerate their personal and professional development, and deepen their ability to make meaningful change in their communities.

 

Each Fellow will be matched with a community partner and faculty mentor to work on a community-identified Wicked Problem. As part of the Fellowship, you will create a portfolio of learning, and have the opportunity to host community dialogue, and publish insights from your Catamount journey in collaboration with your community partner and faculty mentor.

 

"Catamount is a transformative learning experience that provides future leaders with new skills and exposure to applied systems thinking. This offers new ways of conceptualizing problems and designing ways to address challenges. We can't address the same old problems with the same old thinking."

 

- Catamount Community Partner, 2022

 

Are You Eligible to be a Catamount Fellow?
 

 

Catamount is open to graduates of the Student Changemaker Certificate Program (offered in the Fall Semester). Students who are interested in participating in Catamount should apply for the certificate program when registration opens in August.

Fellows commit between 5-10 hours per week, in addition to their academic schedule, to conduct research, connect with community partners and faculty mentors and engage with the Catamount cohort. Fellows are required to join cohort gathering on Fridays from 10am - 1pm, and will also meet with their community partner and faculty mentor bi-weekly throughout the program.

 

You would be a good fit for Catamount if:

• You’re passionate about the future well being of people and planet
• You have a willingness to wrestle with challenges and complex issues facing the 21st century
• You’re a thinker with ideas that have the potential to create change
• You’re in Good Standing academically (note: there is no minimum GPA to qualify for the fellowship)
• You’re a student at MRU with a minimum of 60 credits completed towards your degree or 30 credits towards your diploma
• You’re able to commit between 5-10 hours per week to the fellowship*
• You're able to attend cohort gatherings from 10:00am - 1:00pm on Fridays in the Winter Semester

 

*We highly recommend taking no more than 4 courses through the winter term due to the demands of the final deliverables at the end of the program.

 

In recognition of your participation, Catamount Fellows receive a $2,000 cash stipend upon completion of the program and residency in MRU's Trico Changemakers Studio for the duration of the program.

 

Timeline

August 1 - Recruitment launch

August 5 - Student Changemaker Open House

November 21 - Application deadline

December 12 - Catamount opening gathering

April 10 - Catamount Showcase + Closing Celebration

 

How to Apply

Applications for Catamount are open to graduates of the Student Changemaker Certificate Program. MRU Students who are interested in participating in Catamount should apply for the certificate program when registration opens in August.
We invite interested students to complete our 2025/2026 Expression of Interest Form, and subscribe to our Institute Newsletter to stay up to date about our program offerings.

Need course credits?

Catamount may be eligible for course credit in some degree or diploma programs. Contact us to discuss how.

 

 

Questions about Catamount? 

Contact Cordelia Snowdon-Lawley, our program co-lead, at csnowdon@mtroyal.ca.

Curious to see more from the fellowship? Check out the amazing work from previous fellows below:

 

Sample of Catamount Deliverables 

Links to Previous Year's Deliverables 

 

 

 

  

  

 

Did you know?! Catamount is a synonym for a cougar. Not only does ‘cat’ derive from catalyst but ‘mount’ references to both our name and evokes the challenge of climbing a summit. We chose Catamount because like all large cats, they are an example of a keystone species and their range extends through virtually all of southern Alberta. After watching so many unique lives flourish in the first cohort of this program, it only made sense to reimagine a name that suggests the unique and large journey the fellowship took them on. 

 

 

 

 

The Catamount Fellowship is made possible thanks to the Suncor Energy Foundation