Indigenous scholarship program for electricity and energy industries expanded through OPG, Indspire

Updated: 12:07 p.m May, 13, 2021.

Thanks to a new partnership, a total of $200,000 will now be available during the next three years for Indigenous post-secondary students pursuing careers in the electricity and energy industries.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has been providing the John Wesley Beaver Memorial Scholarship since 1997.

In recent years a pair of recipients have been awarded $5,000 each for the scholarship which honours Beaver, one of OPG’s most notable Indigenous engineers.

Earlier this week it was announced that OPG and Indspire have joined forces to significantly expand the scholarship.

During the next three years a total of 20 Indigenous students studying full-time in Ontario will be awarded $10,000 each.

“It’s a great little scholarship,” said OPG spokesman Neal Kelly. “It’s the little scholarship that has grown now.”

Beaver had served as the Chief of Alderville in Ontario in the early 1950s. He was also a fighter pilot in the Second World War.

Beaver joined Ontario Hydro (the company switched its name to OPG in 1999) in 1949 as a junior engineer. He worked 23 years with the company eventually becoming the operations engineer for northeastern Ontario. Beaver died in 1980.

OPG will provide half of the funding ($100,000) for scholarship winners during the next three years. This contribution will be matched through Indspire’s Building Brighter Futures Bursaries, Scholarships and Awards program.

“Indspire is a national organization,” Kelly said. “We’re well aware of the work they do and we found it to be a nice fit here.”

Indspire is a national Indigenous charity that invests in the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Mike DeGagne, Indspire’s president and CEO, is pleased to see the scholarship will be annually handed out to ever more recipients now.

“We are pleased to recognize this timely and meaningful expression of OPG’s ongoing commitment to Indigenous education,” he said. “This expansion of the John Wesley Beaver Memorial Scholarship represents a host of new opportunities for Indigenous learners and serves as a testament to the importance of John Wesley Beaver’s legacy.”

Scholarship applicants must be Indigenous and pursuing a post-secondary program, lasting at least two years, with the potential to lead to a career focusing on engineering, science and technology in the electricity or energy industries.

“This is an opportunity to show our ongoing commitment to Indigenous education,” Kelly said.

“OPG has a long-standing relationship with many Indigenous groups. It really is part of our DNA.”

Though he was unable to provide exact numbers, Kelly said several previous scholarship recipients have ended up working for OPG.

“There have been several that have gone on to gain employment (with the company),” he said, while others secured positions with other businesses in the industry.

Kelly said traditionally there are a large number of applicants for the scholarship.

“That varies every year but there are quite a few,” he said. “We’ve always had a lot of interest in this. And we’ve been able to select young people that have done very well.”

News of the scholarship expansion could eventually translate into additional Indigenous people working on OPG projects one day, perhaps even in their own communities.

“There’s really good jobs in the skilled trades,” Kelly said. “We want to make sure we get the best people working. And we think it’s a mutually beneficial situation.”

Six scholarships will be awarded this year. Six more will then be handed out in 2022. And then there will be eight recipients in 2023.

Recipients will be selected not only for their academic performances but also for their leadership skills and community involvement.

Upcoming application deadlines are Aug. 1 and Nov. 1 of this year as well as Feb. 1, 2022.

More scholarship information and applications are available at https://indspirefunding.ca/ontario-power-generation