Durham College President Leah Myers congratulates Tracey Pounder, a second-year Public Relations student and several other Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation Excellence Award recipients at an awards dinner held last November.
Thanks to a unique organization dedicated to increasing access to post-secondary education for Canadians, over 1,500 Durham College students have been recognized with more than $5 million in Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation awards for their outstanding leadership and success in the classroom and community since 1999.
The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation gave a total of $5,477,276 in scholarships and bursaries to 1,844 students at Durham College between 1999 and 2006 with the latest recipients continuing to reflect the commitment to education and the community that has defined the college's past winners.
"Working with its partners since its creation in 1998, as of today, the foundation has helped over 265,300 Ontario students pursue post-secondary studies," said Norman Riddell, the foundation's chief executive officer and executive director. "This represents a total investment of more than $790 million in bursaries and scholarships in the province. In 2006 alone, the foundation awarded 48,043 scholarships and bursaries to Ontarians at an overall value of more than $132 million."
At an awards dinner held in November 2006, seven Durham College students were recognized for their academic and community efforts. Margaret Greenley, vice-president of Student Affairs at Durham College said "What a proud time this is for Durham College. To have our students honoured with these prestigious scholarships is so very reflective of the outstanding academic and community leaders here on our campus. All of our scholarship recipients deserve congratulations for their commitment to their studies, their communities and for displaying leadership on a regular basis."
Leah Myers, president of Durham College, also noted that a wonderful variety of pathways had brought the award recipients to Durham College, including one student who had previously earned a university degree and another embarking on a second career after raising a family.
Karen Beharrell, a second-year Paramedic student; Jeffrey Cremasco, a second-year Power Engineering Technician student; Stephen Hutchinson, a second-year Business Administration - Operations Management student; Robert Lakics, a second-year Police Foundations student; Tracey Pounder, a second-year Public Relations student; and Faustino Tuccia, a second-year Motive Power Technician - Service and Management student all received one-time in-course scholarships worth $4,000 each.
In addition, Alexandra Kolar, a first-year Advertising student received a one-time entrance scholarship valued at $4,000.
A private organization, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation encourages students to strive for excellence and pursue their post-secondary studies. It distributes $340 million in the form of bursaries and scholarships each year throughout Canada and since its inception has awarded approximately 800,000 bursaries and scholarships, worth $2.3 billion, to post-secondary students in Canada.
For more information, visit www.millenniumscholarships.ca.