Assiniboine announces nearly $700K in financial awards, celebrates recipients and donors

At this year’s #HumbleBrag Student Award recognition event, Assiniboine Community College has announced that it has distributed $677,550 in financial awards for the 2023-24 academic year.

“We are grateful to be able to gather with our student award recipients to celebrate their achievements, while also showing gratitude to our donors who make it possible,” said Vice President of Advancement, Derrick Turner. “We continue to see increases in the number of new awards created, and the amount of money dispersed to our students. It shows that the community supports the important work we are doing here at the college.”

“The goal of our fundraising is always to enhance the student experience. Whether it’s through learning tools and facilities or student financial awards, our efforts are student-focused.”

This sum will help more than 400 students who are pursuing training at Assiniboine this year. Financial awards are given to students based on a variety of indicators, including financial need, academic performance, athletic participation and emergency needs.

Assiniboine has a strong community of supporters with a long history of giving to support student needs. Since 2017, the foundation has more than doubled the amount of money dispersed to students.

New this year is the D.R. Nankar Bursary for Indigenous Education and The Meenakshi Krishnan Memorial Scholarship. These awards are for students who are looking to further their education and make a positive impact in their communities.

"Mayur and I both come from humble beginnings,” said donor, Archana Krishnan. “Our education has played an integral role in getting us where we are and we firmly believe that education holds the power to transform lives. Both of us have benefitted from scholarships in our educational journey and if it were not for those, our lives would have looked really different.”

"Being first-generation immigrants, we had our share of challenges integrating into a new country and workspace, but our community supported us through it and is now our family away from home. Education brought us to Canada and our community made us stay. Because of this, when we had the opportunity to do something for our beloved community of Brandon, we decided to do it through educational scholarships.”

Attendees of this year’s #HumbleBrag Student Award Recipient Celebration, held at the college’s Victoria Avenue East campus, heard about this year’s recipient of the Meenakshi Krishnan Memorial Scholarship. Carlie Tkachuk is a Practical Nursing student at Assiniboine’s Parkland campus, currently completing her practicum.

“I would like to express my gratitude to Archana Krishnan and Mayur Nankar for their generosity,” said Tkachuk. “As I walked out of college with my first term supplies, I was taken aback. It means a lot to me to receive this financial support towards achieving my dream of becoming a nurse. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Archana Krishnan and Mayur Nankar once again for awarding me this scholarship.”

The #HumbleBrag event was held on Giving Tuesday at the newly renovated Student Association space at Assiniboine’s Victoria Avenue East campus.