Do well in school and register early with Southeast College, and you could receive a scholarship.

It's that easy?

Manager of Marketing and Communications with Southeast College, Sheena Onrait, said 16 of their students are going to have some help with books and tuition now, thanks to their Entrance Scholarships.

"When they applied for our programs before June 30th, they were automatically eligible for these scholarships," she explained. "Then, of course, there is some criteria, so our scholarships team goes through the applications and matches them with that criteria and that's where we came out with with 16 scholarships we are awarding."

The awards go to students who have applied for programs across the Southeast College region, so they could be students all over Southeast Saskatchewan in any Southeast College campus location.

"It's really great to be able to provide a scholarship at the start of their program," she commented. "Sometimes if you are either relocating or you've got those, of course those tuition and book expenses upfront, and those kinds of things. So this is a way to just kind of offset some of that that frontloaded expenses that that postsecondary students can incur."

Onrait shared how the scholarships came to be.

"We reevaluated our entrance scholarship program over the last year or so, and so this is the first iteration of these awards, and of course they we have two different types of awards that we're awarding this year."

Ten students received letters last week confirming they will receive the Southeast College Award of Academic Excellence, while six students will be receiving the Pathways Scholarship. The Award of Excellence was established with the purpose of empowering students and rewarding those who strive towards a path of academic excellence. The Pathways Scholarship was established with the purpose of creating a pathway for success for recent Southeast College Adult Basic Education graduates wishing to pursue a full- time post-secondary education at Southeast College.

"Both the Academic Excellence, and Pathways Scholarships are based on a combination of academic performance and early registration." said Kassandra Lawrenz, Manager, College Advancement. "We can't wait to welcome all our students to campus, and we’re very excited to see where their individual academic journeys take them!"

Scholarships will be paid out to students at the midpoint of their first semester.

Southeast College entrance scholarships are made possible through various fundraising events such as the College's Swing for Scholarships Golf Tournaments. Eligible funds are matched by the Ministry of Advanced Education through the Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Scholarship (SIOS) program.

The 2021 Swing for Scholarships Golf Tournament is coming up on September 10th in Weyburn.