The owners of the closed Prince Albert Pulp Mill are offering graduating area high school students some support.
Paper Excellence has announced they are making four scholarships worth $250 each available to graduating students.
Graham Kissack, a vice president with Paper Excellence said the company offers these scholarships in all of the communities they operate in.
“We think it’s important to invest in our youth and in education to help people better themselves,” he said.
Kissack explained the scholarships are both community and First Nations scholarships. In a media release Paper Excellence said scholarships are available through four local public high schools.
The company has been offering similar scholarships to students in the communities where they operate for over 20 years and Kissack said they usually get lots of interest.
“We generally have really good uptake and really interesting applicants,” he said.
The scholarships are available to any student looking to pursue post secondary education. This can include university, an institute of technology or community college.
The Paper Excellence vice president said they make sure not to limit the scholarship criteria solely to academics.
“It’s about athletic abilities, artistic abilities, giving of time and other volunteerism in the community,” he said.
Kissack added the company felt it was important to bring the scholarship program to the area given their coming plans for the pulp mill.
“It’s really a reflection in our ongoing commitment to restart that facility as we start to build up our team there and accelerate the project to restart the mill by 2023,” he said.