Students from Carlton Trail College received a helping hand on Dec. 6 thanks to the Carlton Trail Awards Dinner.
Over the course of the evening 44 students were presented with 46 scholarships worth $44,000.
Current and former students enrolled in courses 12 weeks or longer were eligible to apply, says Marketing Facilitator, Val Koroluk.
Awards were given out in four categories with five students taking home early application, 11 performance, two entrance awards, and 28 application-based with students eligible in multiple categories.
Koroluk was happy with the increased number of student applying for the application based scholarships with around 40 students applying.
Through the application process, applicants basically fill in a mini-resume, says Koroluk, providing information on how they think they will be a good employee and other questions based on the student marketing themselves.
Carlton Trail also took the opportunity to recognize donors, says Carlton Trail President and CEO Shelley Romanyszyn-Cross, since they are an important part of the support given to students.
The awards night was also a great opportunity for the parties to meet one another with students having the chance to meet donors and donors meeting the students that they are supporting, says Romanyszyn-Cross.
For some students, having this opportunity to meet donors could also mean meeting potential employers and stepping outside their comfort zone, says Romanyszyn-Cross.
Joshua Kovach, Facilities Operations Manager with Viterra, was just one of many donors who distributed scholarships during the evening.
The impact that they can have on students across Saskatchewan is not lost on them, says Kovach, and they were very happy to lend a helping hand to students and, maybe one day, potential employees.
“If we can help them financially get their careers started, hopefully we see them wearing the Viterra colours one day.”
Attending classes can be a challenge for students with mounting costs of post-secondary education and cost of living having an impact on their schooling.
Romanyszyn-Cross knows the positive impact that scholarships can have on students and the support that they get from community and regional partners is invaluable, she says.
“It’s important that we help students find it a little easier to be successful in terms of their goals.”
Students were excited to take part in the evening, says Koroluk with a big jump in the number of students and their family in attendance compared to the first awards dinner in 2016.
The awards dinner does make the students feel special and enriches their experience at the college, she says.
This was the sixth year Carlton Trail has distributed awards to their students with $163,400 given out since their first event in 2011.