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Internationalizing Canada's best student experience

This year's recipient of the Jane Plas International Student Award, Qi (Janice) Zhang, recently met Jane Plas on campus.

A $200,000 bequest from the late Virginia Harris is establishing two new endowments in support of international scholarships and exchange awards.

The retired teacher and long-time friend and donor to Western passed away in March at the age of 92.

Through her gift, one exchange scholarship will be awarded starting in the 2011-2012 academic year to a full-time undergraduate student who is participating in an outbound exchange program and demonstrates financial need. The Virginia Harris Exchange Scholarship has a value of $1,440.

Currently 22 student exchange awards are donor funded, while the Ontario government in the 2009-2010 academic year supported an additional 59 student exchanges from Western.

Harris’ gift will also create two international scholarships of $2,500 to be awarded each year beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year. The Virginia Harris International Admission Scholarships will support full-time international undergraduate students entering their first year and are not already receiving an admission scholarship.

Currently Western has eight donor-funded scholarships and awards for international students pursuing a degree at Western.

One of those donor-funded scholarships came from Jane Plas (BA’71) who donated $50,000 to Foundation Western several years ago and continues to support Western on an annual basis. The Jane Plas International student Award provides $2,500 to international undergraduate students from mainland China, Mongolia or Tibet.

Plas says she was inspired to create the award after teaching English in China where she saw how committed and hard-working the students were. So, she decided she’d like to help some of those students receive a top-notch education from Western.

“It was one of the best investments I have ever made,” says Plas, who travels to campus every year from her home in Waterloo, Ontario to meet with her award recipients. “I like to meet the students. Each one is different and they always impress me.”

This year’s recipient, Qi (Janice) Zhang, who is from China, says she was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Jane Plas. “I always work hard and when I got this prize I was encouraged to work harder and harder,” says Zhang, who will graduate with BMOS in 2011 and chose to study at Western because she had heard about its wonderful learning environment, caring community and beautiful campus. “I appreciate the generous support and was so excited to meet the donor.”

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