This Student Volunteer Scholarship Is ‘Literally Breaking Cycles of Poverty’

When Kevin Campbell and Julie Browne were sifting through the applications for the Eric Ming Community Hero Scholarship during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they found it hard to pick just two students to receive $1,000 scholarships.

So Browne and Campbell, who are colleagues at the Haywood Securities Inc. investment firm and trustees of Campbell’s private charitable Lochmaddy Foundation, created their own scholarship to reach more young people facing economic barriers to post-secondary education.

But instead of focusing on grades or extracurricular activities, as is typical for scholarship programs in B.C. and Canada, they tied tuition dollars to students’ volunteer hours. They call it Altruition.

“It’s quite a profound failing in society that there are so many barriers to... socially and economically move ahead. And a lot of that comes down to post-secondary education,” Campbell said.

“It is unjust that too many kids don’t have the opportunity to attend post-secondary because of financial circumstances alone.”

While reading applications for the Eric Ming Community Hero Scholarship, then funded by Lochmaddy Foundation to honour the Strathcona volunteer basketball coach and youth mentor who passed away in 2016, Campbell and Browne realized many applicants were avid volunteers while also holding down jobs to help support their families and attending high school.

“We wanted to recognize that with a relationship to a scholarship,” Campbell said.

The name Altruition is a portmanteau of the words “altruism,” referring to the students’ volunteer work, and “tuition.” The application criteria is simple on purpose, Browne said: students must be facing financial barriers while attending a public secondary school. Altruition requires only a reference letter from a volunteer co-ordinator or a school counsellor to attest to a student’s financial need.

Starting as early as Grade 10, students who volunteer with one of Altruition’s partner non-profit organizations receive $20 in tuition credit per volunteer hour, for a maximum of 150 hours or $3,000 per year.

Students can participate for three years. The tuition credits are valid only at B.C. public post-secondary institutions.

‘A lot of purpose and a lot of joy’

Doreen David-Walters, who is going into Grade 12 this fall, has been racking up Altruition tuition credits for two years by volunteering with Girls Who LEAP, a registered Canadian charity providing leadership and mentorship opportunities for girls and non-binary youths in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Grandview-Woodland neighbourhoods.

David-Walters is on track to reach the $9,000 maximum for her volunteering hours by the time she graduates.

Not that she’s doing it for the money. When asked how much she had earned so far, Girls Who LEAP founder Mitra Tshan had to remind David-Walters that she had already maxed out her redeemable volunteer hours this year.

“I like to volunteer because it gives me a lot of purpose and a lot of joy helping other people,” David-Walters said.

“So volunteering has always been a really good outlet for me. Also getting to meet these really cool kids, and even adults, too, and getting to experience things. It’s also just a lot of fun, too.”

David-Walters isn’t yet sure which post-secondary institution or program she wants to pursue after she finishes high school.

But she has some time to decide; Altruition makes the tuition credits available for two years after high school graduation, giving students more time to make a decision.

After that, unclaimed credits go back into the fund for future students.

Currently Altruition is providing 315 youths with tuition credits for their volunteer work with non-profit organizations in the Lower Mainland, on the Sunshine Coast, on Vancouver Island and in Kelowna. They hope to expand to support at least 500 students at a time, from across the province.

Campbell and Browne don’t track how many Altruition scholarship students finish their post-secondary program. But they do know how many start at a public post-secondary institution after graduation: 52 per cent of participants so far. That’s very slightly above the provincial average of 51.1 per cent of Grade 12 graduates who transition directly into post-secondary schooling.

About three-quarters of the volunteers who graduated in 2025 have claimed their credits so far. Most students aren’t earning $9,000 like David-Walters, although more and more students are reaching that limit. The average tuition credit issued this year was $2,700.

“We had to cap it somewhere, and we’re still feeling our way through what these limits should be,” Campbell said, adding they didn’t want to encourage students to neglect school or work in order to accrue more volunteer hours.

“We wanted it to be impactful, which $9,000 is if you’re coming from a difficult background, but not be a distraction of some kind.”

‘You may not have a lot of money. But you have time to give’

The youths are volunteering for non-profits including Girls Who LEAP, Foundry qathet, Boys Who RISE, the Boys and Girls Club, YWCA, neighbourhood houses, community centres and health authority programs.

Tshan, the founder of Girls Who LEAP, went to high school with Browne and met Campbell when all three of them were on the committee for the Eric Ming Community Hero Scholarship.

Girls Who LEAP was among the first volunteer organizations to partner with Altruition. Currently several young Girls Who LEAP volunteers are earning tuition credits through Altruition.

“Most of our youth volunteer more than most adults combined in their entire lifetime,” Tshan said.

Girls Who LEAP volunteers help out with programs and events such as Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, after-school programs and fundraising for youths experiencing homelessness and anyone experiencing food insecurity.

“I’ve often said to the kids, ‘You may not have a lot of money. But you have time to give. Always,’” Tshan said.

Altruition doesn’t assign volunteer work to students. Rather, they encourage volunteer organizations to register their existing student volunteers.

The only criteria for the organization’s eligibility are that they be a non-profit, not be related to a religion or school, and can’t have their students attending or organizing protests as their volunteer work.

Jayde Bazinet is the youth advisory committee facilitator with Foundry qathet in Powell River, working with young leaders aged 12 to 25 to help design the Foundry BC health-care hub coming to the town.

The youths also plan events like clothing swaps and volunteer with other projects, such as a Halloween haunted house, in the qathet region on the Sunshine Coast.

Bazinet has helped connect 12 young volunteers to the Altruition scholarship program so far.

“It makes a big impact here in our community, which is rural and remote, to have a scholarship that helps youth access post-secondary education and rewards them for doing valuable community work,” she told The Tyee via email, adding that her current cohort of volunteers is on track to reach 150 hours this year.

“Our youth do so much to make our community a better place. Everything we give to them, I am confident we will receive back a hundredfold.”

Both student volunteer David-Walters and Tshan recommend that young volunteers apply to the Altruition program, noting many of the young people involved with Girls Who LEAP come from single-parent and/or single-income homes.

Leaving post-secondary with little to no debt “gives you a leg up in society,” Tshan said. “You’re literally breaking cycles of poverty with opportunities like this.”