The deadline for students of Métis aancestry to apply for a Belcourt Brosseau Métis Award (BBMA), is March 31 The Award financially assists Metis students by covering between $1,000 and $10,000 of tuition and fees.
To qualify for an award, BBMA applicants must be an Alberta Métis (any age), have a financial need that prevents them from attaining a post-secondary education on their own, and have a connection to their Métis community.
“Awards,” explained Georges Brosseau, “can be as little as $1,000 and as high as $10,000. Recipients are selected on an individual basis; awards are not based on marks alone. We look at the overall individual, providing they meet the criteria of the Awards Panel, which is made up of Métis people.
"Sometimes an individual is selected because we see that he or she has struggled through difficult times, but remains dedicated to achieving both an education and a successful life.
“People aren’t refused because they don’t have high marks; we base our decisions on the whole person and are very cognizant that they sometimes don’t have opportunities. We try to provide the opportunity that many of our young students need – what they do with it will determine their future.”
The awards, he added, were created “to uplift our people so they can succeed in the world; to do this they need to be educated. Education is the key to success and therefore we are pushing as hard as we can to give out as many awards as we can each year.”
If you are a Métis student needing help to pay your tuition, apply to the BBMAs for studies beginning after August 2021. The application is still open - find it online at www.bbma.ca. March 31 is the deadline.
Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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