Carlton Trail College held their Student Awards Program Dinner last night at the Bella Vista.

At the Dinner, Scholarships were given to students enrolled in Carlton Trail College by those who donated scholarship funds.

Shelley Romanyszyn-Cross is the Vice President of Academics for Carlton Trail College.

She talks about how crucial the scholarship money is for the students.

"It's absolutely fundamental. For them, it's an opportunity to award the good work they've done, but it's also an opportunity to get a few dollars into their bank account because it's expensive going to school. A lot of them are not able to work, a lot of them have families at home, so it's an opportunity for them to have an extra bit of income to help pay for some of that tuition and some of the cost of going to school."

Romanyszyn-Cross says the Awards dinner is important.

"I think it's an opportunity to publicly recognize the donors. If it wasn't for the donors, we wouldn't be able to award the money. As well, it's an opportunity to show off the students. It's to show off the good work that we do at the College, and it's to show off the work that students do."

Those who were accepted into programs 12 weeks or longer were eligible for the scholarships.

Val Koroluk is the Marketing Facilitator for Carlton Trail.

She explains where the $41,000 in scholarships comes from.

"What's behind the $41,000 is the support of donors within our region, as well as the matching funds from the Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunities Scholarship. What that shows is that businesses and organizations and individuals really support the power of education by investing in our scholarship program."

Koroluk describes what the scholarships will be used for.

"We've got 45 scholarships were being presented this year. Some of them received their money towards their tuition in the beginning of September. The rest of them will have their tuition subsidized by the scholarship, and then we presented a lot of cheques today too."

Also in attendance was Humboldt-Watrous MLA Donna Harpauer, as well as a couple of students who received scholarships, thanking donors and instructors.

Hear more from Val Koroluk and Shelley Romanyszyn-Cross here: