Knights of Columbus offer scholarships

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor
Edmonton

The scholarships are open to the province's 12,700 Knights, their children, and their wives or widows.

Julito Reyes of Leduc, state secretary and chair of the state scholarship committee, said the first scholarships will be awarded for the 1999-2000 school year.

"It's part of reaching out to youth and families in our area to support them in post-secondary education, Reyes told the WCR.

Many local K of C councils also award scholarships, he noted.

The state scholarships, he said, are based on a wide-range of criteria ranging from academic achievement to Church and community involvement.

They also take into account the financial need of applicants, he said. The Knights were founded more than 100 years ago to help meet the needs of widows and orphans.

The 10 scholarships will be equally distributed among the five regions the order has designated in its Alberta-Northwest Territories jurisdiction.

More information about the scholarships is available from Reyes at 986-5183 or Joe Miller of Calgary, state communications director, at 271-7647.

Meanwhile, the Knights' supreme council announced that for the 1998-99 academic year, it had awarded $1.2 million US in scholarships.

As well, Knights at all levels awarded $8 million US in scholarships, said Supreme Knight Virgil Dechant.

According to a Dec. 21 statement from the Knights' headquarters in New Haven, Conn., the supreme council money funded 537 college and postgraduate scholarship and fellowship grants.

The statement said Knights at all levels also spent about $6 million US promoting vocations, directly supporting seminaries, and supporting seminarians and religious postulants either directly or through scholarships.

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