The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Southport Scholarship Committee presented Georgian College student Aynsley Stephens with the mature student scholarship September 13, during their event at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre. From right, scholarship recipient Aynsley Stephens, with CFUW Scholarship Committee members Cheryl Grace, Sandi Primeau and Cathy Spence.

Hub Staff

The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Southport is ramping up for another year and hosted an event at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre September 13 that welcomed back members and saw Aynsley Stephens of Port Elgin presented with the CFUW’s mature student scholarship.

Stephens, who has worked as a Personal Support Worker (PSW) for the past 11 years and who currently works at Hampton Court in Southampton, just began schooling at Georgian College in Owen Sound where she is taking Practical Nursing. She said she’s had a busy start, already completing an assignment and two quizzes but said she's loving it, “I’m exactly where I need to be,” she said.

The scholarship amounted to $1,000 and Stephens said it feels incredible to have received it. “I've never received anything close to this, I'm very happy right now.”

Stephens’ program program at Georgian will last two and a half years and she said she already knows what she would like to do upon graduating. “I’d love to be in surgery, my mom was a nurse of 40 years and did transplant surgeries for 36 of those years so that’s ideally where i’d like to go, with an end game of paramedics,” she said, adding “at this point it’s wherever I can go and help people because that’s what I like doing.”

Sandi Primeau of the CFUW Scholarship Committee said that every scholarship applicant was required to write a letter and provide references. Primeau stated that Stephens’ letter was quite passionate and that she knew what she wanted from her future, with committee member Cheryl Grace adding, “Aynsley came with very high personal references, work references and we thought she was a very worthy candidate.”

Stephens said this was the right time for her to go back to school, before she began family planning, and that her years of experience helped with her conviction to make the decision. “I've always wanted to get to paramedics but with learning disabilities and everything else it just wasn't possible at the time,” she said. “But working up here for as long as I was gave me the confidence to go back and upgrade.”

This year marks the third year that the mature student scholarship has been awarded and it has become a passion for many of the CFUW members who regularly donate to the cause. CFUW member Luz-Maria Alvarez Wilson is currently walking through Mexico to raise money.

Member Cheryl Grace said that the Southport chapter will be adding a new scholarship in 2019 that will mark the 100th anniversary of the CFUW as a national organization. “We decided several years ago that we’re going to create a special scholarship that would be going to a young woman coming out of foster care that was going onto post secondary education,” said Grace. At the September 13 gathering CFUW members were selling raffle tickets for a quilt created and donated by member Joanne Harris, with funds going towards the new scholarship.

Come October, the CFUW will again be giving out scholarships to young women graduating from secondary school. Awards will be given out at the commencement ceremony at Saugeen District Secondary School will go to a female Indigenous graduate, the top female student going to university and the Betty Colborne Memorial Scholarship. The annual $1,000 scholarship goes to the top SDSS female graduate going into the sciences.