STEPHEN RICCIO
PONTIAC July 8, 2020
Post-secondary students can once again benefit from local bursary support, as the Pontiac Scholarship Fund has accumulated . . .
23 $1,000 scholarships for students who meet various criteria, mainly those in financial need.
The fund exists to help anyone from the MRC Pontiac or the Municipality of Pontiac who is attending university, college or apprenticeship-type training.
Last year, the fund gave out a total of 26 scholarships to students. France Morissette-Lamarche helps to facilitate the collective fund, and she said that it was very pleasing to see so many scholarships still being given out in the middle of a pandemic.
“It’s amazing that our donors have responded,” she said in a phone interview.
Within each $1,000 sum, there could be several individuals or businesses within to add up to the total. Morissette-Lamarche said that the groupings of $1,000 are associated by location of donor as well as recipient.
“We try to group them by areas so you know, like, Otter Lake, or Shawville, or Campbell’s Bay or Fort Coulonge,” she said. “We find a student from that area so that the groups will be giving to a student from the area.”
While many of the scholarships will be given to students who have shown that they are in need of more financial assistance, there are a handful that also require a certain field of study.
That includes one for a student going into agriculture, three for those in health care, one for art and one for science/communications students.
The 29-year old fund has come a long way from its modest beginning, according to Morissette-Lamarche.
Back then, the bursary amount was significantly less than $1,000, and there was also a requirement that students receiving the scholarships would have to return to the Pontiac for work after their education.
The application deadline for applying to a scholarship is Friday, Aug. 14. Applications can be mailed to the fund’s address in Shawville, or sent by email to info@pontiacscholarshipfund.ca.
