A recent graduate of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, has won one of Canada’s most competitive academic awards to study security and terrorism at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Vitoria Wortman, from Upper Coverdale, New Brunswick, received a $20,750 Mackenzie King Travelling Scholarship this month. The award, funded by a trust set up under the will of former Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King, supports Canadian university graduates heading to the U.S. or U.K. for studies in international or industrial relations.
Wortman graduated from StFX in 2025 with an honours degree in political science and a subsidiary in economics, finishing her four-year program in just three years. At the university’s spring convocation, she also earned the $6,000 Dr. John B. Stewart Scholarship as the most outstanding political science student.
This fall, Wortman begins a two-year Master of Arts in Security Studies at Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where she plans to specialize in terrorism and sub-state violence. She also secured an annual merit scholarship from Georgetown worth about $12,400 U.S.
Wortman’s interest in the field is deeply personal. She was born in Israel near the Gaza Strip and moved to Canada at age seven. Seven family friends died in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Her honours thesis at StFX, supervised by Dr. Jamie Levin, the Tanenbaum Chair in Peace and Conflict, examined how the American-Israeli relationship shaped existential war in Israel.
Dr. Levin encouraged her to apply for the Mackenzie King award despite her doubts. Wortman now plans to work at a Washington think tank, researching and advising policymakers on Middle East and security issues.
