UFV marked Aboriginal Awareness Day by celebrating a new language scholarship donation by Dr. Malwinder Dhami and the long service of Elder Theresa Neel. Dr. Dhami was the first to donate during the fundraising campaign for the Centre for Indo Canadian Studies in 2004 and his family have been generously supporting UFV students in meaningful ways since then. Over the past 3 years, the Dhami Family has established Endowment Leadership Awards in departments such as Nursing and the Dental Assistant program.
In 2016, the Dhami Family established a leadership award for students studying their mother tongue, Punjabi as well as a leadership award for those studying Halq’emeylem. This award, named the The Dhami Family Endowment Leadership Award (Halq’eméylem) and Dhami Family Endowment Leadership Award (Punjabi) will be available to be given out one year from now – Fall 2018. Dr. Dhami and his Family established this Leadership Award as an Endowment Award – every year a $1,000 award will be given in perpetuity for generations of UFV students to come. The Halq’eméylem language Leadership award is open to all years for a returning student who has taken or is enrolled in any of the UFV Halq’emeylem Proficiency (101, 102, 201 and/or 202 (OR has successfully taken one or more of these courses at during their UFV school history) and has committed volunteer time to community involvement/engagement
The Punjabi Leadership award is open to all years for a returning student who has taken or is enrolled in any of the who is currently studying Punjabi Proficiency 101, 102, 210 and/or 211 (OR has successfully taken one or more of these courses at during their UFV school history) and has committed volunteer time to community involvement/engagement.
