YES Bursary

Growing up, Ami Price-Gagnon dreamed of one day moving to California and becoming a successful entrepreneur. Thanks to a lot of hard work – and some help from ATB Financial – that dream is a step closer to reality. Now a third-year business student at the University of Alberta, Price-Gagnon is one of the six inaugural recipients of the YES (Youth Education Support) bursary, the result of a partnership between ATB and the Government of Alberta.

"I was excited and grateful, especially to have a relationship with ATB Financial," Price-Gagnon beamed. "After I found out I was accepted, we went a little more in depth with the opportunities this bursary includes. To this day, I'm getting more and more excited the more I find out."

The YES bursary provides money, mentorship and employment opportunities specifically to post-secondary students who were once in the care of the provincial government. The government's similar Advancing Futures bursary was already available to such students, but the province and ATB recognized that more could be done.

"We're wrapping our arms around these students and giving them the support that they need in addition to money," noted Peggy Garritty, ATB's Senior Vice-President, Communications and Corporate Responsibility. "We've tried more and more at ATB to not just write cheques and walk away. It's not that the money isn't important, because it is. It's all the other things we can do in addition to that that really add the value and make it a special program for us and for the students involved."

The mentoring aspect of the bursary will take on many different forms, said ATB Regional Vice-President, Edmonton Region, Kim Irving. "Mentoring is really individually based depending on what the student's needs are. We'll help them understand our business and how we make decisions. We'll also have them participate and be members of our team."

Bursary recipient Sandra Konashuk, an accounting major at Grande Prairie Regional College, believes ATB's mentorship will be quite beneficial. "I've never had a mentor before. I'll definitely be more knowledgeable about what the real business world is like. Right now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I'm done school so it will be nice to get some guidance."

"It's already helping me more than I thought it would," added Price-Gagnon, now a part-time member of ATB's Human Resources team. "I'm learning things about HR that I'm not learning in school. I'm seeing it in action in the real world."

So far, all six bursary scholars have made incredible impressions on everyone at ATB. "They're pretty amazing," said Garritty. "When you meet these young people, you recognize how strong they've had to be, how amazing their abilities are and how they've been able to overcome things and still have a really positive outlook filled with dreams and hopes of what they can do."

Konashuk hopes other current or former foster children will follow in her footsteps. "I encourage them to take advantage of this opportunity to be somebody and succeed," she said. "Most people don't have the opportunity to get their school paid for. It gives me the opportunity to provide for my kids in the future. I'm really glad I did it. It's really changed my life."

The same can be said for Price-Gagnon, who still hopes to move to California and become an entrepreneur. But her dreams don't end there. "Down the road, I'd like to get my PhD and become a professor."