On a bright sunny day in the summer of 2021, on the heels of completing her second year of Western’s engineering program, Samantha Goertz, HBA ’24, BESc ’24, was busy painting lines on soccer fields when she decided to check her phone.
There was an email telling her that she’d been accepted into Ivey’s HBA program, and would be receiving a Linamar Scholarship for Women in Engineering and Business — one week after initially being rejected for the award.
Goertz fell to her knees. When her coworkers saw her, they rushed over to see if she was okay. Through nervous laughter, she said to them, “My life just changed.” The first person she called was a friend who’d been accepted into the same dual degree program and received the Linamar scholarship the week prior. “You’re not leaving me behind!” she shouted into the phone. “I’m coming with you!”
About the Linamar Scholarships
Established in 2017 with a $5-million gift from Linda Hasenfratz, MBA ’97, LLD ’19, her late father Frank Hasenfratz, and her husband, Ed Newton, the Linamar Scholarships for Women in Engineering and Business support up to 10 women entering HBA1 who intend to complete the dual degree program in engineering and business. Recipients receive the scholarship throughout the entirety of their HBA degree, which sees half the cost of their annual tuition fully funded.
After serving as CEO from 2002 to 2024, Linda Hasenfratz is now the Executive Chair of Linamar, a manufacturing company serving the mobility, access, agriculture, and MedTech industries based in Guelph, Ont., with 75 plants in 19 countries.
Part of the Linamar scholarship program is a guaranteed summer co-op position with Linamar, and recipients may even be offered full-time employment with the company after graduation.
“I'm a big believer in experiential learning,” says Hasenfratz. “When I sat down to talk about the program with the Ivey team, I really wanted to have that experiential element included. I thought the co-op was a great opportunity for us to get to meet some of these young women and have them do a work term with us.”
About the Linamar Co-op
Goertz, who graduated last year and is now working as an Environmental Compliance Graduate Engineer at consulting firm GHD, completed the Linamar co-op in 2022. She had the opportunity to conduct destructive testing on Linamar’s prototype hydrogen fuel cell.
“It was a really fun experience,” she says. “Connections are so important, especially for that first job. Having an internship secured at the outset really took a lot of stress away. It enabled me to focus more on school instead of the countless hours of coffee chats and recruiting interviews that a lot of my classmates were putting in.”
Emily Ignagni, HBA ’25 , also received a Linamar Scholarship and completed two co-op placements at Linamar’s Innovation Hub plant — one in 2023, and again in 2024. As a Business Development Intern, she helped the Director of Innovation, North America search for the latest discoveries and cutting-edge technologies that Linamar could manufacture at scale. “I loved it so much that I went back to the exact same position,” she says.
In addition to gaining exposure to all kinds of work, Ignagni felt welcomed and respected by everyone at the plant from day one. “Respect is hard to earn, especially when you're new,” she says. “So, to have it already when I stepped through the door was really nice, especially as a woman.”
From recipient to role model
From the outset, Linamar Scholarship recipients are encouraged to think about how they can give back to other women in both fields. In fact, one of the questions Goertz was asked during her co-op interview was: how will you take the scholarship and use it to improve other women in engineering and business?
That consideration has been top of mind for her ever since. “Because I was given this huge helping hand, I'm way more aware of other women going through similar situations, and how I can help lend a hand in broadening their networks, or passing on connections,” says Goertz. “I find that I seek these opportunities out now, whereas before I was doing it a bit more passively.”
“Role models are really important to help promote awareness and bust stereotypes around women in all kinds of careers,” says Hasenfratz. “And I think we all play a role in helping to do that.”
Ignagni has received social media messages from lots of young girls considering the dual degree program who found her name via the Linamar Scholarships website. She ended up speaking to one girl on the phone one summer for two hours, answering any questions she had. Through Western’s Women in Engineering Club, Ignagni was part of an initiative called the Big Little Sister program, which pairs an upper-year woman engineering student with a first-year woman engineering student.
“That girl who I called in the summer ended up being my Little Sister,” says Ignagni. “Now she's in second year, and she reached out to me a couple of months ago and told me she's applying for the Linamar Scholarship.”
Impact of the Linamar Scholarships
Goertz always knew she wanted to be an engineer, so she struggled with the idea of investing a significant amount of money into a business degree only to go back to engineering. “But in the back of my mind, I still knew business would be so relevant to the workforce,” she says. “Knowing some of that financial burden would be covered, it became more of a feasible opportunity.”
Beyond the financial support, one of the other key benefits both Goertz and Ignagni remark on is the network the scholarship provides, and the confidence it instills.
Goertz didn’t apply for Ivey out of high school, because she saw only the top students in her class applying and just assumed the School was out of her league. After she received the Linamar Scholarship, though, she felt reassured. “Getting that support validated that someone believes I can do this,” she says. “In fact, they’re willing to put money forward that I will complete this and do good things with it.”
Ignagni constantly had a feeling of not knowing whether she belonged, or if this was the right path for her. The scholarship helped quiet that inner critic. “It brought reassurance and confidence within myself, to say, ‘I deserve to be here,’” she says. “This is what I want to do, and this is my passion.”
Impact of the dual degree program
Hasenfratz’s goal in creating the Linamar Scholarships was to increase representation of women in the engineering and business programs. By combining these degrees, she says. “You're getting this great technical education from a world-class engineering school while at the same time getting a great business education from a world-class business school.”
Every December, Hasenfratz meets current scholarship recipients at an annual reception. “I'm just so impressed by all of them and feel really proud that we can call them Linamar Scholars.” By then, recipients have completed two years of engineering at Western, and are in their HBA1 year.
“I always think it's really interesting to hear when I chat with them how all these engineers have to get their head around the idea that there's more than one answer to a problem when they start studying business,” she says. “In science, engineering and math, there is only one answer — you are right, or you are wrong. Lots of engineers love the certainty of that. In business, there isn’t just one right answer. That can be difficult to adjust to when you are used to that mathematical/technical world of black and white, right and wrong.”
“That right there shows you the magic of the combination between engineering and business. Being able to balance those two worlds and skill sets is so powerful for any job or career.”
Hasenfratz hopes more young women consider the dual degree program, and don’t count themselves out before they’ve even thrown their hat in the ring. Same goes for applying for a job or promotion. To those who don’t think they have what it takes, she says: “Just take the shot. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. There’s no downside to it. You’re only going to learn from that experience, and maybe get that scholarship or job. Don’t be afraid to do something you don’t feel completely ready or qualified for. Those can be the best experiences of all!”
If you’re interested in creating a scholarship, please contact Nic Miller, Director of Development, at nmiller@ivey.ca.