SD57 District Awards Program
The District Awards Program is made possible by the community. Many individuals, service clubs, and companies in the Prince George and Central BC area donate scholarships and bursaries to recognize student accomplishment. These awards not only bestow honor on students, but also bring them financial rewards which help offset expenses when continuing their education after high school.
The School District would like to thank the many donors who contribute to the 150+ different awards, with a value of over $150,000 that are available through our District Awards Program for our graduating students!
All students currently graduating grade 12 from the 9 high schools in School District 57 are eligible to apply for the awards in this program: *College Heights Secondary, *D.P. Todd Secondary, *Ecole Duchess Park Secondary, *Mackenzie Secondary, *McBride Secondary, *Prince George Secondary, *Shas Ti Kelly Road Secondary, *Valemount Secondary, *Alternate Community Programs
Please note that registration site used to submit applications is not available outside the application time period each year.
2025-2026 Awards Application Time Periods
For 2025-2026 the Awards application Form time periods are:
Opens January 21, 2026 – Closes February 25-27, 2026 depending on High School Students are attending.
Closing dates by school
February 25, 2026 – ACP (aka.CLA, John McInnis Center), College Heights Secondary, Mackenzie Secondary, McBride Secondary, Valemount Secondary
February 26, 2026 – DP Todd Secondary & Shas Ti Kelly Road Secondary
February 27, 2026 – Duchess Park Secondary & PGSS
Application Processing: The application process will be administered online through Microsoft 365, using SD57 students’ 365 email (sample@sd57.student.bc.ca).
For support with this application process, please contact the counselling department at your high school.
Reference Letters as required in the specific award descriptions. Additional reference letters are also a great thing to have when applying for awards, since they can break a tie when our committee or donor groups meet to decide upon winners. Letters can be attached even if they are not required.
FOR BURSARY APPLICATIONS ONLY (Scholarships do not require this information): Complete the Declaration of Family Income form (listed below) and have it signed by a guardian, or school counselling department staff. If a completed Declaration of Family Income is not attached to a Bursary application, your application will be disqualified from consideration. This only applies to BURSARY applications. SCHOLARSHIPS do not require this attachment.
Winners will be notified at their high schools’ graduation ceremonies in May-June 2026
Other Scholarships and Awards
BC Excellence Scholarship
This is awarded to 55 well-rounded high school graduates who have demonstrated service and leadership, both at school and in their communities, and who show aptitude for and commitment to their chosen career paths. Successful recipients receive a $5,000 scholarship voucher from the Ministry of Education and Child Care.
Applications for this Scholarship are due in February each year, directly to the Ministry of Education. Please see the ministry’s site for further details:
Pathway to Teacher Education Scholarship
The Pathway to Teacher Education Scholarship is awarded to 20 outstanding high school graduates who have demonstrated a commitment to and aptitude for a career in K–12 teaching.
Successful recipients receive a $5,000 scholarship voucher from the Ministry of Education and Child Care that they can use to be reimbursed for tuition paid after they are attending an approved K–12 teacher education program in B.C.
Applications for this Scholarship are due in February each year, directly to the Ministry of Education. Please see the below site for further details:
District/Authority Scholarship
The District/Authority scholarship is awarded to 5,500 high school graduates who have demonstrated excellence in their chosen area. The Ministry of Education and Child Care sets core eligibility requirements and general guidelines; local scholarship committees determine awarding criteria and select their conditional recipients. *SD57 Awards committee collects these applications along with all of the other local awards. The selection for winners is made by the SD57 Awards Committee.
The Ministry confirms that the selected students have meet basic criteria and then sends these confirmed recipients a $1,250 scholarship voucher. They may redeem this voucher with the Ministry to be reimbursed for tuition paid after they are attending a post-secondary institution that is designated by the Province of B.C. (i.e., approved for Canada Student Loans) or a program provider that is approved by the Industry Training Authority.
Applications for these awards are collected between January 21 and February 27, 2026 along with the other SD57 awards. In the 2024-2025 graduating year our district was allotted 109 of these Scholarships to be distributed among our graduating students. The amount that each district is allotted each year is based on numbers of graduates anticipated in each district. Please see the following site regarding more details from the Ministry regarding these awards.
Please take a bit of time to review the awards available from the Ministry of Education as the following site is continually updated. If you have questions about Ministry of Education awards that you were awarded, there is also contact information listed on this site to help with that:
OTHER AWARDS THAT ARE AVAIALBLE TO SCHOOL DISTRICT 57 GRADUATES, WHERE APPLICATIONS MUST BE MADE DIRECTLY TO THE DONOR GROUP(S):
Horatio Alger Association of Canada – Grade 11 Awards
Horatio Alger Association of Canada – Grade 11 awards – The Horatio Alger Association of Canada is a charitable organization dedicated to the belief that hard work, honesty and determination can overcome all obstacles.
Samples of ‘Thank You’ Letters
Below are samples of Thank You letters for students to use. Also available are sample ‘confirmation of full time enrollment’ letters that will need to be requested by the student from their selected Post Secondary Institution, AFTER classes have begun.
* If the confirmation of full time enrollment letter is dated by the post secondary institution for prior to the first day of classes listed within that letter, it will be rejected for claiming purposes! Be sure to wait until ON or AFTER your first day of classes. Most institutions will charge a small fee for these letters, and that expense is expected to be paid by the student.
If you have any questions about this, please email districtawards@sd57.bc.ca
Key Documents
Key documents for applicants to review are outlined below.
(1) New Awards Information Worksheet: This is a document for you to use when you are setting up the new award. It has spaces to enter all of the information that WE will need in order to add the new award to our awards program.
(2) Policy 5126 and welcome letter: This is the Policies in place around the awards program at School District 57
(3) 2021-22 Scholarship and Bursary: File below is a sample only. UPDATED VERSION WILL BE POSTED SEPERATELY. This is the booklet that we share with graduates between November and January each school year, so they can read through and plan on which awards they would like to apply for. I have attached this so you can see how other donors have set their awards up.
Please review these 3 documents, and once you have a feeling for how we will proceed, contact Natasha Rempel. We will be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Natasha Rempel
Secretary, Curriculum Innovation Department, School District 57
Phone: 250-561-6800 ext. 314
Email: districtawards@sd57.bc.ca
Dry Grad and Donations
In case you are not already aware, our School District 57 graduating classes do benefit from the donations that are made at the BC Liquor Stores each year! Given the amounts contributed over recent years, we just want to communicate that these contributions really do make it to the DryGrad planning groups every year!
If you are able, please help support a safe and memorable experience for our graduates when you are shopping at BC Liquor Stores in March each year!
Graduating Class | Total raised by BCLDB in our districts’ area | $ per student distributed to grad classes |
|---|---|---|
2024-2025 | $5,293.32 | $4.92 |
2023-2024 | $7,794.46 | $7.48 |
2022-2023 | $8,493.47 | $8.40 |
2021-2022 | $2,357.64 | $2.46 |
2020-2021 | $5,501.06 | $5.51 |
2019-2020 | $6,223.57 | $9.57 |
2018-2019 | $12,681.43 | $12.37 |
2017-2018 | $12,743.67 | $12.00 |
For details on fundraisers, please take a look on the BC Liquor Distribution Branch website here: https://www.bcldb.com
To participate in fundraisers: Dry grad groups from any high schools in School District 57, can contact districtawards@sd57.bc.ca for information about taking part in these fundraisers. Fill out the form in the letter to DryGrad Committees 2025-2026 below and forward it by mail (SD57 Awards, 2100 Ferry Avenue, Prince George, BC, V2L 4R5) or email districtawards@sd57.bc.ca, or drop it off at the School District 57 Board Office (2100 Ferry Avenue, Prince George, BC)
If you have any additional questions or concerns about applying for awards, claiming awards that were won, starting new awards for students graduating from School District 57, or anything other related matter, please direct emails to districtawards@sd57.bc.ca or phone calls to 250-561-6800, local 314.
Please note that the District Awards Secretary is away during all school district breaks (Summer Break, Winter Break and Spring Break). Any emails or phone messages left during these times will not be addressed until the secretary returns following the break(s).