Exploring the ESBGC ACE Scholarship

Here at the Club, we are committed to highlighting our community and all the hard-working individuals within it. It is only with this community that allows ESBGC to be effective as it is.

A significant avenue for us to highlight the community is by way of the ACE, Advancing Change Educational, scholarship; which provides up to $1000 to driven & highly motivated youth within our community. The overall aim of the scholarship is to support our youth in their educational endeavors with the hopes they can achieve their professional goals. The scholarship considers many socio-economic factors, namely income & social status, education & literacy, race & racism, in its development and the selection process. We want our youth to know we, as a community-driven club, are here to support and empower you towards achieving your dreams.

The scholarship is threefold:

  1. Encourage educational aspirations of students
  2. Help students develop skills that are consistent with lifelong learning principles and continuing professional development
  3. Align student’s personal goals with the Club’s strategies for widening neighbourhood participation in higher education

The ACE scholarship aims to relieve some of the financial stress many lower-income households are facing nowadays. Data from the 2017 Financial Health Index study, conducted by Seymour Management Consulting, found that Canadians with lower household income are more financially stressed and vulnerable. It highlights financial stress as having a major negative impact on the emotional wellness and physical well-being of individuals and their families (2017, Seymour Management Consulting).

It is by this realization alone, of the overarching effects that lower-income can have on our livelihood overall, that we hope to highlight this scholarship and the benefits it can offer our youth. We hope to highlight our community leaders and aid them in allowing them to fulfill their educational & professional potential.

We spoke with our Youth Coordinator, Shintelle Rayside, to speak about the challenges affecting our youth and the motivation behind the ACE scholarship.

In response to the biggest challenges our youth are facing today, Shintelle had this to say, “the knowledge of what is out there. Where and how to access it...how to tailor their essays or applications to be successful”.

Services like essay and resume help are typically not offered within schools, and especially not on a one-to-one personalized basis. The Club offers personalized one-to-one help with the hopes of helping individuals, as Shintelle says it, “become more effective when it comes to responding to a question, highlighting their best points, and staying within the word count.”

In conclusion, we asked Shintelle why should our youth take advantage of this scholarship, to which she responded,

“It’s free money that our young people should take advantage of."

We hope anyone interested takes advantage of this opportunity and applies. The application deadline is March 26, 2021. The full application package, with a list of required documents and applicant criteria, can be found below: