the two universities are asking former students to help finance new scholarships that will offset a 33-per-cent tuition hike for new applicants from the rest of canada.
“proud to support this new award and scholarship at mcgill,” finkelstein, the president of e-commerce giant shopify, told his followers in a social media post last month that included a link to a donation page. “ mcgill is the pride and joy of our city, province and country.”
born in montreal but raised in florida, finkelstein got his entrepreneurial start selling t-shirts to finance his education at mcgill . he went on to finish his degree at concordia. now a top executive at one of canada’s largest public companies, he recently moved back to montreal from ottawa, where shopify is headquartered.
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mcgill has announced the canada award , a $3,000 annual scholarship for undergraduate students studying in arts, agricultural and environmental sciences, music, education, architecture, nursing and science.
concordia launched the canada scholars award , an undergraduate scholarship providing between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, depending on the student’s grades upon admission.
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“we saw very heartwarming reactions from some mcgill alumni who want to step up to help canadian students from outside quebec ,” mcgill said in the statement.
concordia, which is struggling under a growing deficit , said the awards will be financed through a combination of donations and university funding.
“we will be financing them with the generosity of donors — both through new donations and by redirecting existing awards that have been underused,” maestracci said. “the rest of the financing will come from our budget, which is already stretched.
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she previously had her heart set on bishop’s for an education degree but looked elsewhere after the initial tuition hike was announced.
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