Every year, a local society quietly coordinates the process of distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and bursaries to graduating central Okanagan students.
The Central Okanagan Bursary and Scholarship Society’s (COBSS) annual allocation process began on Monday and will last two weeks. On Wednesday the donors who provide the award money were sifting through students applications to award their scholarships to the best candidates.
“It is an interesting process to read the applications. [There are] a lot of very worthy kids, a lot of really amazing students who are dealing with things that you have no idea that they are having to deal with and they are rising above and excelling,” donor Peggy Henderson said.
Over 500 awards worth nearly $500,000 will be handed out. The winners are not just the academic all-stars.
“Volunteerism is huge,” COBSS president Jude Pipher said.
“Those kids, they may not have the greatest academic and athletic standing, but they are doing a fantastic job volunteering. They have that opportunity for their work to be recognized.”
The donors’ reasons for giving are as diverse as the applicants. Henderson is selecting an applicant for a bursary in her father-in-law’s name.
Rutland Senior Secondary grad Loretta Davis gives her family’s award to a student from her alma mater. She makes a point of selecting a graduate who hasn’t already received another award.
“Doing this shows us all the good young people that are out there. You always hear about the bad ones. This just shows us time and time again all the wonderful kids we have in the community,” said Davis.
Given the high price of post-secondary education, many bursaries will only cover a fraction of students’ total costs, but students selected for awards also get the confidence boost of knowing others believed in their abilities.
“I think the validation that it gives to students when they find out that they’ve received an award at graduation, I think a lot of them, they really carry that forward with them,” Pipher said.
More than 600 applicants are vying for the awards this year. The winners are announced at school graduation ceremonies.
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