Support for our community through education
Purpose
One of the Bennett and Albert County Health Care Foundation's stated objectives is to support the health and wellness of residents served by the Albert County Community Wellness Centre. One way to accomplish this is to promote employment in the health care field. This policy's aim is to provide financial support to students who choose to pursue a career in a health care related field of study. The foundation will therefore, to the extent possible, provide monetary assistance to graduates of the Caledonia Regional High School who pursue post-secondary education.
Policy
As part of the annual budgeting process, the Bennett and Albert County Health Care Foundation will assess its ability to set aside $1,000 for educational bursaries.
To the extent possible, two (2) five hundred dollar ($500) bursaries will be awarded to graduates of the Caledonia Regional High School who choose to pursue postsecondary education in a qualifying field. These bursaries will be awarded annually through a random draw process.
A bursary committee will be formed each year, made up of at least one member of the executive and one board member. The committee will comprised of no less than three people.
Each year, the Chair of the Bennett and Albert County Health Care Foundation will correspond with the Principal of the Caledonia Regional High School to announce the foundation's decision in relation to the availability of bursaries. The Chair will include the application form that prospective applicants must complete.
Qualified students will complete the application and forward them to the foundation for consideration. Applications will be accepted on or before May 1st of each year.
The bursary committee will review all bursary applications to determine if the applicant(s) meet the application requirements. These will include:
Applicants must be a student graduating from the Caledonia Regional High School in the current year;
Applicants must plan to enroll in a post-secondary program at any university, community college or other post secondary institution;
Applications will only be considered from applicants who continue their education within a 9 month period of graduation. Applications will not be considered from students who choose to defer their education to pursue employment or other activities;
Applications must specify what program the student plans to enroll in.
The bursary committee will review each application and use its judgment to ensure that the applicant has identified a qualifying field of study. The field of study identified by the applicant may be broad in nature but the applicant must describe, in the application, how the chosen field will impact the health and wellness of individuals.
No member of the bursary committee may participate in the review of an application from a direct family member or relative. In that event, the other two bursary committee members will decide if the application is qualified, or not.
All bursary applications will remain strictly confidential and every effort will be made to protect an applicant's personal information. Personal information will not be shared with any individual who is not a director or officer of the Board of Directors of the Bennett and Albert County Health Care Foundation.
Procedure
Applications from students must be received in writing, on the approved form, on or before May 1st of a given year.
Applications will be reviewed by the bursary committee to determine if the postsecondary field identified by the applicant meets the definition prescribed by the Bennett and Albert County Health Care Foundation. Each application will be identified as either "qualifies" or "does not qualify."
Applications deemed to be qualified will be marked with a sequential number based on when they are reviewed by the foundation. Each qualifying application will then be assigned a token with the same sequential number. These tokens will be used for the draw.
At the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board, a member of the board who was not part of the application review process will draw two tokens from the number of qualified applications.
Two alternate tokens will be drawn during the draw. These will be recorded in order of priority and will be used to award alternate bursaries if the successful candidate does not enroll in post-secondary studies or if he/she chooses to enroll in a field of study that does not qualify.
The ballot numbers drawn will then be cross-referenced with the list of applications to identify who the successful applicants are.
The successful candidates will be awarded a letter of congratulations from the Chair of the Albert County Health Care Foundation. The letters (bursaries) will be awarded during the Caledonia Regional High School graduation ceremony. The letter will include a stipulation that the candidate must provide proof of enrollment in a qualifying field of study prior to receiving the bursary.
All applications will be kept for two years. Thereafter, all applications will be destroyed and the only reference to the bursary draw process will be that which is recorded in the foundation's meeting minutes.
Dated: March 25, 2019