Four Castlegar post-secondary students have received $5000 scholarships.
All four students attend Selkirk College and have received Ike Barber Transfer Scholarships from the Victoria Foundation.
The scholarships are to assist them in moving between post-secondary institutions in 2015. Three are bound for theUniversity of British Columbia, and one for the University of Vitoria.
“The Transfer Scholarship program was initially established to support Ike Barber’s vision that more students could pursuehigher education if they could commence their studies locally and transfer when necessary to complete their particular degreeobjective. Doing this, students could avoid initial social disruption and higher costs associated with moving from their homecommunities to commence a degree program,” said Hugh Gordon, chair of the Irving K Barber BC Scholarship Society, in apress release.
The society awards the scholarships annualy to undergraduate students who have completed at least one year at a public BCpost-secondary school and who are transfering to another degree-granting school to finish their studies.
Cindy Pickering is studying nursing at Selkirk College, and to complete the program, students must become University ofVictoria students after the first three and half years, paying U of Vic tuition costs, despite remaining on the Castlegar campus.
The transfer scholarship she received will help Pickering cover some of the extra tuition costs.
“[It’s a] signigicant increase in tuition. I’m even scared to really put the numbers out,” said Pickering. “I’m a single mom thatdecided to do this — I don’t know what I was thinking — so it will for sure hopefully help with some of the costs there aswell.”
Students need to have strong grades and must have demonstrated volunteer service in their school or community to qualifyfor a transfer sholarship.
Pickering volunteers for an equine vaulting team, at Mountain View Equestrian Center, and volunteered at a sexual healthclinic during the summer.
Scholarship funds come from the returns on a $15 million endowment established by the province in 2006, and the fund isnamed after philanthropist Irving K Barber, who had a long history of supporting BC public education and research projectsbefore his death in 2012.