St. Albert’s Métis community partied down Friday after an Edmonton university announced a $500,000 fund to help youths get an education.
Concordia University and the Métis Nation of Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding Friday to create a $500,000 endowment fund for Métis students at Concordia. Half the money comes from the Métis Nation of Alberta via the Rupertsland Institute and the Métis Education Foundation; the rest is an in-kind contribution from the university.
They haven’t worked out the details yet, but this fund will likely provide four to 15 Métis students at Concordia a year with scholarships or bursaries of up to $5,000, said Rupertsland Institute spokesperson Lisa Savill, citing similar endowments the institute has with other Alberta post-secondary institutions. It will be the first time that Concordia has offered a scholarship specifically for Métis students.
“These bursaries can offset tuition costs, living expenses, book costs,” Savill said. “It just lightens the load so students can focus on their studies.”
Dignitaries rallied at St. Albert Place after the announcement for a celebratory barbecue and speeches organized by the St. Albert/Sturgeon County Métis Local 1904.
Poverty is behind many of the issues seen in Métis and Indigenous communities, and you need an education to get out of poverty, said Gwen Crouse, vice-president of Local 1904. Many Alberta Métis can’t afford a post-secondary education – they didn’t even have a high school in Crouse's hometown of Grouard, which was a mostly Métis community.
Danielle Powder, manager of the Indigenous Knowledge & Research Centre at Concordia and a Métis Albertan, said a fund like this would have made her life easier when she was pursuing her degree. She ended up with a sizable amount of student debt despite living with family, and she knew of many other Métis students who had to work “obscene amounts of hours” just to afford their education.
“University is expensive,” she said – about $36,000 for a four-year degree – and endowments like this one help reduce that cost.
An endowment like this will help many Albertans who may be struggling with rent or jobs and can’t pay for tuition to get an education, Crouse said. “Once you have an education, then the poverty becomes less.”
Powder said the creation of this fund was a historic moment for Concordia that would give it more opportunities to support the Métis community. This year has also seen the university accept a record 104 self-identified Indigenous students, about 45 of whom are Métis.
Many of today’s Métis students are the first in their families to pursue post-secondary degrees, Powder said.
“We need more Métis people in leadership positions, and that comes from pursuing degrees.”
Savill said that scholarships and bursaries from this endowment would be available next year at Concordia. The Rupertsland Institute has similar endowment funds at 16 other Alberta post-secondary institutions that have distributed some $3.6 million in student awards since 2007.
