Achievements, passion recognized with annual awards

Ryan Bilinsky and Kelly Risley were two of 113 recipients to receive education funding from the 2011 Belcourt Brosseau Métis Awards.

“The BBMA has a lot of resources to learn from. The support they give to the students gave me an incentive to try harder. Learning about my Metis culture brought me closer to the community,” said Bilinsky, who volunteered for BBMA functions before being recognized with an award. Bilinsky, from Edmonton, is a first year student at MacEwen University in the Bachelor of Arts program. Bilinsky follows proudly in his brothers’ footstep as a BBMA recipient.

“I wouldn’t be able to go to NAIT without the award.  Paying for my tuition helped me significantly. My parents were happy because they were unable to help me as much as they wanted to,” said Risley, from Whitecourt, who is a first year Power Engineering Technology student.

In the past 10 years the BBMA has given out more than 900 awards in over 200 different programs worth more than $4.3 million. For 2011 the program is providing $480,000 to students to attend training in all major educational institutions in Alberta.

“We do not only look for the need, we look for the ability to succeed and the connections to the community of the applicant. They need to brag a little and be passionate about what they are going to study. If the committee doesn’t feel it, they won’t fund it,” said Theresa Majeran, BBMA communications coordinator.

BBMA has been so successful, said Majeran, that Alberta Health Services has joined other corporate sponsors and donated $75,000 to the Edmonton Community Foundation to help Métis Albertans achieve their educational dreams, many of whom focused on eventual careers in the healthcare field.   Other generous donations have come from Alberta Scholarship Programs, Enbridge Pipelines Inc., the June Virginia Robinson family, the Rau family, and Syncrude Canada who have contributed more than $650,000 since 2005 to the BBMA fund.

“Trained students are the positive outcomes that governments and industry look for,” said Majeran.
“After providing shelter for our people through the Canative Housing Corporation, we realized we needed to help them with education. Investing in our people was the right thing to do,” said Herb Belcourt in a promotional video on the Belcourt Brosseau Métis Awards. Also founding the award were Orval Belcourt and Georges Brosseau.