Help for 1st-generation college students

Canadian Press, KEITH LESLIE, Aug. 30, 2006. 05:15 PM

Young people in Ontario will be encouraged to become the first in their family to attend university or college under a $5-million program for so-called first-generation students, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced Wednesday.

The money will go to the post-secondary institutions and to church groups, cultural centres and other community-based organizations to help identify people who could be helped to return to college or university, or to become an apprentice.

"It's all about funding programs designed to reach out into the community and to lend a hand to first-generation students, and to provide them with the necessary encouragement and the necessary supports so that they can pursue their studies," McGuinty told students and staff at Seneca College in Toronto.

"It's more than just the right thing to do, it's a powerful economic strategy at the beginning of the 21st century in our knowledge-based economy."

Another $1 million in first-generation student bursaries, which the government estimates will help some 450 people in obtaining a higher education, will be made available for the new academic year.

"If you come from a family where one of the parents has gone on to post-secondary education or training, you're two-and-a-half times more likely to go on to that than if you didn't," said Colleges and Universities Minister Chris Bentley.

Monique Huggins, a 26-year-old single mother, ended up on the honour roll after signing up for the Seneca Centre for Outreach Education program, (SCORE), a pilot program now being expanded across the province.

"If I can do it with three children as a single parent, (others) should be able to see that they can achieve the best also," Huggins said.

Patrick Tobias, 26, said he spent six years living on the streets of Toronto until he saw a poster for Seneca's SCORE program, and decided to turn his life around by getting off welfare and going to college.

"A lot of people, my mother, my family, they've all given me advice over the years, and I'm ashamed to say it took me so long until now to realize that, hey, there's only so much talk can do," Tobias said.

"Action speaks louder than words."

Seneca president Rick Miner said he considers the SCORE program an instant success.

"These kids are kids who thought 12 months ago they'd never do anything in education much less college, and some plan to go on to university," Miner said.

McGuinty said getting people like Huggins and Tobias into higher education doesn't just help them and their families, but also provides a benefit to society at large down the road.

"It's a matter of enlightened self-interest to ensure that these young people achieve their greatest potential."

The New Democrats accused the Liberal government of using the program to distract attention from the fact it is allowing tuition fees to rise by four per cent a year after lifting a two-year freeze.

But Miner said he believes most students will be able to manage the higher fees, which amount to about $80 a year on Seneca's $2,100 tuition.

"It's not a big deal because for a lot of these students because we give them jobs on campus," said Miner.