New this year to Victoria College, the Scholarship and Grant Writing Club aims to help students navigate the broad market for supplemental funding.
Founder Spencer McMurray, a Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies student from Victoria College, received official club recognition in November and has just recently begun operations, having held only one meeting so far.
“We deal with anything related to student funding, whether that be bursary applications, research funding applications, or even applications for internships and student projects.”
Currently, the only effective resource when it comes to scholarship and bursary funding is the registrar office of each college. “They’re really knowledgeable about their own scholarships, whereas I help people access other things such as external scholarships, grants, and other funding outside of the university.”
According to Victoria College registrar Susan McDonald, “Vic provided over $2 million in awards to Vic students this past year. Most of the merit-based scholarships at Vic happen automatically, as per the Senate awards policy—students don’t apply for them.” However, there are also many application-based scholarships and bursaries given away each year.
The Canadian Federation of Students reported that the average debt upon graduation for students receiving federal student loans reached $28,000 in 2014. On the other side of the equation, at the time of writing, the Scholarships Canada website homepage indicates that there are currently 80,927 awards available, worth $177,092,640 collectively.
Knowing how to navigate this vast market of available funding is a daunting task, something that McMurray has mastered through a great deal of practice. “Once you know the keywords to sourcing scholarships, the process becomes somewhat easier, which is where my expertise comes in.”
McMurray says a big part of the club’s goal is to help students appropriately market themselves on their applications. A large part of receiving funding, he insists, is the ability to effectively sell yourself as the best candidate. He uses his background in sales to help other students effectively market their credentials in their applications.
The club meets every second and fourth Thursday of each month at Caffiends in Old Vic, between 12 and 1 PM. Spencer can be reached by email at [email protected] or directly by phone 647-529-7984.
