Cash available for the students taking

The Scholarships and Advancement Services department at Fanshawe College is looking into developing new methods ofincreasing awareness for the many awards, scholarships, and bursaries available to the student population.

Rebecca Campbell, Support Officer in the Scholarships and Advancement Services department said that the department is taking necessary steps towards generating more applicants for their various awards offered.

“We are working with the Digital Media Centre to put colourful posters around the school,” Campbell said. “We are also in the planning stages of making updates to the website, but we can always do more. Our website could be better, but it is up to the students to let us know what they want.”

Campbell said that there are a couple of reasons why students might fail to apply for bursaries or awards at the college.

“For some students it is not easy giving personal information, it might portray a sign of weakness, or show their budget problem,” Campbell said. “Some might not apply because they think they will not get it.”

FSU VP of Finance, Mike Critelli, said laziness might play a factor with students in filling out the applications.

“A lot of students feel like they may not get it, that other eligible people will get the bursaries, so they do not fill out the forms,” Critelli said. “Laziness could factor in for some students as well, and unless they are in desperate need for cash they won't be proactive about it and research the bursaries.”

Bursaries are made available to students who demonstrate a financial need.

One key bursary of note is the Post Secondary Ontario Student Opportunity Trust Fund Bursary (OSOTF) that is open to students in their final year of academic study and is available in most two, three, and four-year programs.

Several other bursaries along with the OSOTF bursary are available to Fanshawe students starting January 15 and lasting until January 26.

The Scholarships and Advancement Services department is also accepting nominations and applications for the post-secondary-wide awards at the college.

Campbell said the awards are available to students in the final year in a diploma program and include a range of award criteria including, athletics, high academic performance, overcoming challenges, participating, and having a disability.

The best applicants are chosen and brought in for an interview with the Scholarships and Advancement Services department. Based on the results of that interview and the thousand word essay, which is a mandatory requirement with the application, winners for the various awards will be selected.

Pictures of the past years recipients are currently located in the display case across from the Information desk in F building.

Two external scholarship programs that the college strongly promotes are the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation In-Progress Excellence Awards and the Garfield Weston Merit Scholarship for Colleges.

Providing some advice for students, Campbell said to visit two web sites, www.studentawards.com and www.scholarshipscanada.com.

“These sites are great places to visit,” Campbell said. “You always hear that millions of dollars of unclaimed bursary and scholarship money is left over year after year. The money is not going to fall into your lap, but these sites are a great place to start.”

The Scholarships and Advancement Services department is located in F3011.You can reach them by telephone at 519-452-446, or by visiting their web site www.fanshawec.ca/awards.