Across Canada, post-secondary students are preparing to make a difference in their areas of study and communities. The RTOERO scholarship program is helping 20 of them to get there.

Natalie Robinson, nominated by District 33, is one of this year’s scholarship recipients. She is studying to earn a bachelor of science in nursing at Western University. In her program, Natalie has learned much about the many obstacles that seniors can experience when accessing health care – from financial barriers, to access to transportation, to a lack of interventions from medical teams. Once she has completed two years of clinical practice as a registered nurse, Natalie plans to spend an additional two years in school to become a geriatric nurse practitioner (NP) in her rural hometown community of Ridgetown, Ontario.

This year, RTOERO has awarded scholarships valued at $3,000 each to 20 college and university students who are enrolled in programs that lead to a career in education, environmental stewardship or seniors’ health and well-being.

RTOERO members are encouraged to recommend students for the annual scholarships. To date, RTOERO has awarded scholarships totaling more than $550,000.

To apply for the scholarships, students had to describe how their studies and goals relate to RTOERO’s purpose, what influenced them to pursue their intended career and how their contributions (to family, school, work, community) have aligned with RTOERO’s goal and values.

This year’s recipients are studying in programs including nursing, medicine, speech-language pathology, social work, health sciences, biomedical engineering, physiotherapy, pharmacy and education.