A West Central High School student has won a $1500 bursary funded jointly by the Rocky Kinsmen Club and the national Hal Rogers Endowment Fund.

Arieanna Van Heeran is a high school student at West Central High who plans to attend the University of Alberta in Edmonton to work toward a Bachelor of Education degree.

Dustin Bisson, treasurer for the Rocky Kinsmen Club and also board member of the Hal Rogers Endowment Fund says the fund is to help deserving students get a leg-up in the world of post secondary.

Criteria at the national level includes financial challenges, number of siblings, parents’ net worth, school expenses for next year, cost of living expenses, says Bisson, as well as other issues such as medical issues, academic involvement and volunteerism.

Criteria at the local level includes knowledge of Kin Canada and its activities, says Bisson.

$1000 was contributed by the Hal Rogers Endowment Fund with $500 by the Rocky Mountain House Kinsmen Club.

Bisson says over 800 applications for the national endowment were received from communities across Canada, including five from Rocky Mountain House alone. That number was then whittled down to around 250 finalists, with 104 applicants successfully receiving a $1000 bursary.

That number represents  amount of national bursaries increased sharply in 2024 compared to the year prior, says Bisson, with 64 given out in 2023.

The national endowment is named after Kin Canada founder Hal Rogers who believed everyone should have an opportunity to pursue post secondary education.

According to the Kin Canada website, nearly $1.3 million dollars has been awarded to nearly 1,300 students since the scholarship’s founding in 1994.

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