The Merit Award Bursary Program provides bursaries to senior high school students as an incentive to stay in school, recognizing those who demonstrate a commitment to their school work, extra curricular activities and communities.
The Merit Award Bursary Program was started in 1996 by a group of Toronto residents. They felt it was important to support and encourage high school students to stay in school. The late Mr. Justice John Sopinka of the Supreme Court of Canada was the first Honourary Chair of the Program, which is administered entirely by volunteers.
The first bursaries were awarded to 20 high school students in the former City of York in the Fall of 1996. The Program was expanded to include the former Borough of East York in 1997. In the most recent round of awards [Spring, 2012], the Merit Award Bursary Program awarded 150 bursaries to students at 45 specified secondary schools across Toronto.
I was honoured to be one of the recipients of the $2,000 bursary as well as being the keynote speaker, speaking on behalf of all the students who won something that night. This is the second time that I’ve been awarded this bursary and still cannot get over how AWESOME it is, literally helping over thousands of students with their education.
In one of the photos is a myself with the other recipient from my school, Amir as well as a photo of myself and my mom!
I am also apparently a poster child for the Merit Awards..
