OCAD University has been the grateful beneficiary of support from the Second Chance Scholarship Foundation, through the Roy McMurtry Second Chance Bursary. We are honoured that the Foundation has entrusted OCAD University with this very special donation in the past. The funds continue to have a tremendous impact on relieving students’ financial burdens, allowing them to focus on their learning journeys. We thank the Foundation for once again reaching out to OCAD U to establish another transformational bursary, this time in our Creative Writing program, in honour of Christie Blatchford

This special endowed bursary will provide financial support to students in OCAD U’s Creative Writing program in the Faculty of Arts and Science. It will be awarded annually in perpetuity and will give preference to students who have been involved or are at risk of becoming involved, in the Ontario Criminal Justice system. If no student(s) meet this criterion, the bursary will be granted to a student(s) who demonstrates financial need. The bursary will be named in honour of Christie Blatchford, one of Canada’s most prominent writers, who had an immeasurable impact on the field of creative writing and journalism.

OCAD University delivers imagination with impact

OCAD University’s mission demands that we “seek and respond to the questions of our time”. In 146 years, OCAD U has risen to become the largest and most significant school of contemporary art and design in Canada. OCAD U is the home of artists, designers, makers, and scholars who are shaping conversations about the present and future of Canadian society, and home to creatives who reimagine a world in flux through art, design practices, and scholarship. Our collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to change-making through art, design teaching and research have established OCAD U as a local, regional and global leader in creativity and technology. OCAD U is deeply committed to supporting a diversity of talent that is informed by different backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. We strive to be a model for equitable post-secondary education and take very seriously our commitment to Indigenization, equity, and inclusion.

OCAD University’s Creative Writing program is a hands-on, studio-based, four-year undergraduate program about writing as artistic creation. Unlike any other creative writing program in Ontario, it enables students to hone their craft while exploring multiple art and design practices. Collaborative by nature, our transdisciplinary and transcultural approach enriches imaginations, broadens perspectives and helps to develop each individual writer’s voice. Our program includes the study of living literary culture and literary art practices and production, and emphasizes the practice, craft and production of spoken, written, visual and verbal texts as well as experimental language forms that exist both inside and outside established genres. We welcome ‘attitude’ translated on the page and off, through performance texts and other media.

OCAD U TODAY

• Largest, most comprehensive art, design, and digital media university in Canada and third-largest in North America.
• 4,742 students in 19 undergraduate and 7 graduate programs; 21% international.
• More than 600 faculty and academic staff.
• 19,000+ alumni are among Canada’s leading artists and designers.
• Four Canada Research Chairs:
  • Design for the Internet of Things
  • Design for the Future of Health
  • Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice
  • Canadian Black Diasporic Cultural Production

Your Impact

Our mission at OCAD University is to empower learners through an environment that facilitates access and choice beyond the traditional classroom and studio. As you well know, bursaries dramatically reduce barriers to participation in postsecondary education and in many cases are crucial to recruiting and retaining students in need of financial assistance. Many of our students have a non-traditional profile, coming to OCAD U while supporting a family or working part-time. The Second Chance Scholarship Foundation seeks to support a student demographic that is otherwise left out of pursuing meaningful education, and therefore viable and sustainable livelihoods. This mission is a strong testament to the Foundation’s commitment to ensuring that education in arts and design is accessible to all students who wish to pursue it, regardless of means or background.

Christie Blatchford Second Chance OCAD Bursary

Student Financial Aid Endowments

Endowment funds sit for a minimum of 12 consecutive months to build interest to be able to be disbursed. The examples below are based on 4% disbursement annually.

$25,000 endowment:
• $1,000 x 1 student bursary

$50,000 endowment:
• $2,000 x 1 student bursary or,
• $1,000 x 2 student bursaries every year – in perpetuity

*undergraduate tuition expenses average $7,200 per year