Two university scholarships available for women

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

The Montreal Lakeshore University Women’s Club (MLUWC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and is once again offering two $2,000 scholarships to local female university students.

Named after former West Island educator and one of the MLUWC’s founding members, Margaret Manson — who completed a Master’s-level education while raising five children — the scholarship is available to any woman currently registered in an undergraduate or graduate degree program at a Quebec university. Candidates must be Canadian citizens or permanent resident residing in the West Island, which the MLUWC defines as anywhere from Lachine to the Ontario border. Applicants must also show a good academic performance and a financial need.

According Barbara Barclay of the MLUWC’s scholarship committee, the scholarships have gone on to help many women over the years, including the 1987 winner: a mother who was studying teaching at Concordia University and getting by on only $19,000 a year. Following her studies, she went on to take a teaching job in Ontario, which helped her travel the world — one of her life’s passions — through teaching-exchanges and a better salary.

“The grant probably fed my daughter and I a little better and gave me a lot more peace of mind,” the woman wrote in a letter to Barclay, adding the money from the MLUWC scholarship helped, in part, get her where she is today. “I hope my story will inspire you to continue giving grants to worthy students,” the letter concluded.

The application deadline for the Margaret Manson scholarship is March 30. For application forms and more information on the MLUWC and their parent organization, the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), visit www.mluwc.com.