Carleton has announced a new scholarship for undergraduate students in the neuroscience and mental health program.
The $111,000 Daniel Alfredsson scholarship was announced by the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 30, together with Carleton and Bell Let’s Talk.
The announcement was made at a game at which the Senators retired Alfredsson’s #11 jersey.
The former long-time captain of the Senators has supported many mental health initiatives in Ottawa, according to a news release on Carleton’s website.
According to a release from the Ottawa Senators Foundation (OSF), scholarships will be awarded annually to students going from one year of the program to the next.
Kim Hellemans, the neuroscience undergraduate chair at Carleton, said the scholarship money will benefit students greatly.
Having the scholarship “indicates the priority of providing funding for programs that have a mental health component,” Hellemans said. “This will also heighten the exposure of our program.”
Hellemans said mental health is a large topic in the department, and that there are no other neuroscience scholarships similar to the Alfredsson scholarship.
“This is something very personal to me and a cause that I have been passionate about for a long time,” Alfredsson said in a news release on Carleton’s website. “To know that Carleton University has matched the funds provided by Bell Let’s Talk and the Ottawa Senators Foundation to establish a scholarship in my name that will assist the next generation of leaders in this field is a great honour to me.”
The OSF jointly donated $55,000, together with Bell Let’s Talk. Carleton matched this amount.
“. . . Alfredsson has been an incredible ambassador within the mental health movement, working tirelessly to remove stigma and barriers often associated with mental illness,” Danielle Robinson, the president and CEO of the OSF, said in a press release. “He has encouraged people to speak up and ask for help by sharing his own personal connection to mental health struggles within his family.”
Robinson added that “It seemed appropriate to thank and recognize [Alfredsson] for all he has done for the community by creating another lasting legacy that will live on in perpetuity, the Daniel Alfredsson Scholarship in Mental Health.”
