Grade 12 students can apply for 2020 scholarships of up to $40,000, which include access to mentors and paid summer internship opportunities, to pursue a undergraduate or diploma studies at any B.C. public university, college or trade school
VANCOUVER SUN – A recipient of the first round of the Beedie Luminaries Scholarship Program for financially disadvantaged post-secondary students is grateful for the help with college expenses.
“If I didn’t get it, I would be struggling with paying for school,” said Linda Chobang, who is in her first year at Douglas College, studying political science with plans to go into law or the civil service. “I would have got a student loan.”
Chobang, whose family of eight immigrated to Canada from war-torn Sudan in 2010, was among 80 scholarship recipients of the program’s inaugural year.
She applied for the scholarship when it was announced a year ago and was surprised to get an interview and then a scholarship of up to $10,000 for each of the four years she expects to take to earn her degree at Douglas, then university.
The scholarship program was set up by developer and philanthropist Ryan Beedie, who while growing up in Burnaby saw “friends who did not have the same opportunities to attend post-secondary education as he did,” according to a news release announcing the program’s expansion.
This year, there are 105 available scholarships, worth $4.2 million, and the eligibility has been expanded from Metro Vancouver to the entire province.
“Financial hardship should not stop talented British Columbians from pursuing higher education and realizing their full potential,” said Beedie in the release.
Nour Suliman, 20, whose family of six immigrated from Syria in 2016, is attending the Health Sciences program at Langara College on the Beedie scholarship, with plans to become a doctor or surgeon one day.
“No way” would she be able to afford post-secondary school without the help, said Suliman, who lives in East Vancouver and graduated from Sir Charles Tupper Secondary.
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