Funding frustration ends college career
Nursing student says she's not going back to Aurora College after being denied territorial loan
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Sarah Pope said she is giving up on her goal of finishing her final year at Aurora College because she's been denied a NWT Student Financial Assistance (SFA) loan.
Facing $60,000 in student debt once she graduates, the 32-year-old from Hay River - who has been living and studying at the college's North Slave Campus in Yellowknife since 2010 - said she's angry she doesn't have funding to pay for her final year of school. Pope said she is four-years deep into the nursing program and she paid her way so far borrowing money from the Alberta Learning Information Service (ALIS).
SFA does not allow students to access funding if they have been receiving funding from another jurisdiction within the past 12 months.
Pope said she moved to Alberta to care for her grandmother before moving to Fort Smith to begin the Nursing Access program. Because the last time she spent 12 months without going to school was during her time out-of-territory, Pope said she is out of luck.
"They denied me because I hadn't been living for 12 consecutive months in the North without going to school," said Pope. "The fact that I went to school ... disqualified me from being able to go to school with SFA."
Last year, while living in residence with her 13-year-old daughter, Pope said she hit the maximum amount students are allowed to borrow from ALIS - $60,000. With no chance of more Alberta money, and repeated denials from the NWT's department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE), Pope said she's giving up the bureaucratic battle because she's been repeatedly told she won't be approved.
"NWT SFA told me I will be denied," she said.
Pope said she has moved her belongings and her daughter in with her boyfriend so she won't have to face an official eviction.
She said when she first arrived in Yellowknife, she went to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) for help. She learned that she was too late for the financial assistance intake and was told to apply for welfare instead. She was assured, she said, that she'd be able to transition to SFA funding.
"They (an ECE representative) gave me the impression I would establish residency after a year and then I could apply for regular SFA when I apply for my actual program ... which was not the case."
She said she's received an apology from the department representative who misled her about transitioning to the NWT funding system, but when she asks if special considerations might be made given the circumstances of her case, she says the answer is still, 'No.'
Tami Johnson, spokesperson for the department, confirmed students must be a resident of the NWT for the past 12 months without accessing funding from another jurisdiction for that same period of time.
When asked why Pope is being denied she stated that she couldn't comment on the specifics of Pope's case for privacy reasons.
Pope said she has already been through two appeal processes and one legal hearing trying to sort out her problem.
She said she's decided to get a full-time job to start paying off her debt.
'It's a big mess'
"I get really tired," she said. "It's a big mess. I think they're not willing to be open to interpretation of those rules. They're keeping a person from applying for SFA in the place where they grew up in. It doesn't inspire loyalty."
She said she was told by the department's former deputy minister, Dan Daniels, that the department was working on finding a loophole that would help people with immediate family members living in the territory to access SFA funding if they've been denied based on the grounds that have dismissed her requests so far. She said she was told by her MLA Robert Bouchard to apply for SFA funding again, but her most recent rejection has her convinced it's time to give up.
Eligibility requirements for SFA general loans
To qualify for SFA, you must:
- Be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
- Be a resident of the NWT according to program criteria.
- Study at an approved designated institution.
- Be enrolled in an approved, post-secondary program or course as defined by SFA.
- Ensure your previous SFA student loans are up-to-date.
- Make arrangements to repay any outstanding Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) debts; and
- Not be receiving student financial aid from another provincial, territorial or federal program.
Source: Education, Culture and Employment
