Vaishvi PatelAfter two months of waiting, Fort McMurray resident Nicole McMillan is relieved her money from the Disaster Relief Bursary finally came in.
McMillan, a third-year business student, is one of 44 students who received bursaries from the University of Alberta after being affected by the Fort McMurray wildfire last May. A total of $91,000 in bursaries were dispersed (averaging out to $2,068 per student) to recipients who received between $1,500 and $5,250 each. The bursaries were funded by contributions from the university and donations from members of the university community.
In May, the wildfires in Fort McMurray caused the evacuation of nearly 90,000 people. When the bursary had just been started, an estimate based on the BearTracks home address listings indicated 500 current and prospective students of the U of A may have been affected by the fire, meaning that roughly 10 per cent of those students received funding.
Read more from May: Bursary created to help U of A students affected by Fort McMurray fires
According to Deputy Registrar Melissa Padfield, all students with a mailing address in that region were contacted about the bursary.
“I think that the communications was quite robust in making sure that anyone that could be eligible knew about the opportunity to apply,” Padfield said. “We were probably able to reach the ones with the most need.”
McMillan had been supporting herself and her family by working two jobs back home at Fort McMurray. Her mother had been unemployed after being diagnosed with cancer last July and her father had been on and off jobs due to layoffs. She applied for the bursary at the end of September.
“When it took so long I was almost thought that I didn’t get it,” McMillan said. “Waiting was a little bit stressful.”
Padfield said each applicant was assessed according to guidelines in line with Alberta government loans standards, as well as by the magnitude the fire’s impact on the student and their financial burden. As part of the application process, students included their financial statements over the last four months. All of those who applied earned a bursary.
A few weeks after fall reading week, McMillan was awarded a $1,500 bursary — she felt like a burden had been “lifted off (her) shoulders.”
“What was most important to me was having the university take a real interest in the lives of students that aren’t from Edmonton,” she said. “Not being from Edmonton, it’s nice to have the university care about all of their students and not just students that are from (the city).”
Padfield noted that the system set that was set up for this bursary can help the U of A respond similarly if future disasters occur.
“It would be naive to think that this will never be needed again,” she said. “I feel quite proud of the fact that the university came together to set up a mechanism by which we will be able to mobilize in this fashion.”
