As many students and parents know, it is currently scholarship season, and administrators of funds are contending with a huge pool of applicants. One of these organizations is the Edmonton Community Foundation, which endows the Belcourt Brosseau Metis Awards with $13 million in scholarship money. Each year, an average of $5,000 in funding is donated to 100 students. To qualify for the awards, students must show evidence of Metis descent, the potential to succeed as well as maturity.
During the spring, the foundation’s staff analyzes and score every application received. The staff then prepares a lengthy dossier of the applicants’ summaries for the judges to review in mid-June. The seven judges, all hailing from Metis backgrounds, will research each applicant individually, and debate his or her capabilities.
According to George Brousseau, an Edmonton attorney who helped to found the awards with Herb and Orval Belcourt, students have a better chance of obtaining funding if they are in their first year. He said that his organization tries not to exclude candidates whenever possible, because education allows people to boost their circumstances. The students who are awarded scholarships get to meet the judges at an annual dinner held in the fall. Per Herb Belcourt, nearly 95 percent of the scholarship recipients finish their entire coursework.
The candidates are as diverse as they are worthy: One, in law school, has promised to serve the Metis people in her profession, and is a volunteer helping aboriginals at legal clinics in the area. Another candidate owns his own company and also serves in the army. Another applicant had to withdraw from college because he had leukemia. Currently free of cancer, he wants to finish his education.
The endowment began in 2001, following the closure of the Canative Housing Corporation. The goal of the corporation, which was established in 1971, was to locate rental homes for Metis people relocating to Calgary or Edmonton. When the corporation was ready to shut down, it had 150 homes on its books that needed to be sold. Given its not-for-profit status, its founders, Brousseau and the Belcourt brothers, could not simply divide the profits. Consequently, the money was invested with the Edmonton Community Foundation.