The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to introduce Sophie Helpard as a recipient of our Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship for Spring 2025.
Sophie is a Master of Public Affairs student at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Her research studies the positive societal impacts derived from investment in sport and recreation programs in Canada. Her Hildebrand Fellowship will support her capstone project, a policy benefit-cost analysis on the impacts of increasing federal funding to Canada's national sports organizations. Specifically, she will seek to quantify the social impact of these expenditures, and whether increased funding leads to general improvements across a variety of health and wellbeing measures. Her fellowship will fund travel to Canada to conduct fact-finding interviews with sport organizations and other stakeholders.
Sophie received her honours specialization in political science from Huron University College and Western University, where she worked as the Director of Government Relations before pursuing her master’s degree.