Windsor students hope to create new aboriginal scholarship

A University of Windsor student group is creating an aboriginal scholarship for fellow students.

UWindsor Get Real wants to be more inclusive, so it has partnered with the University of Windsor's Aboriginal Education Centre to create the Indigenous Initiative Student Scholarship.

"We can't have equity for one group without equity for all - and that's really what we stand for," says Get Real President Victoria Pedri.

"We started off as an LGBTQ pro group and we still are, but without inter-sectionality and without understanding all the different ways that we might need help, we really won't make a difference."

Get Real is hosting its "United Relations" benefit dinner on March 24 at Fogolar Furlan. The group's treasurer Wes Foster knows the struggles of people trying to get funding from government for education.

He has relatives from Six Nations Mohawk tribe and he wants them to have more opportunities when they're ready for school. 

"Who knows? In 10, 20 years they might not get anything, so I would really like to start making the change now, so they have a better future as well," he said.

Foster says many of the scholarships and bursaries listed on the University of Windsor's website have either expired or are too restrictive due to the conditions placed on them.

Half of the money raised from the pasta dinner fundraiser will go to the new aboriginal scholarship and the other half will go to queer youth mental health initiatives.

In an email to CBC, the University of Windsor's spokesperson says aboriginal students are eligible for any scholarships, awards and need-based bursaries where they meet the terms of reference.

"All aboriginal students can access government grants and loans via the Ontario Student Assistance Program (if considered an Ontario resident) and in many cases, in addition to Band Funding where the funding does not cover their allowable direct educational costs," wrote spokesman John Coleman.