The Indigenous Student Development Fund was established to provide financial assistance to Indigenous students, to help cover the costs of additional educational expenses or unexpected living costs. This fund was formerly known as the Indigenous Student Success Fund.
Examples of expenses that may be considered include:
- Tuition and fees not covered by scholarships, bursaries, loans or grants
- Testing or conference fees
- Tools and other school supplies
- Emergency housing, utility costs
- Emergency childcare
- Emergency transportation
- Other unforeseen emergency expenses potentially delaying a student’s degree completion
- Wellness expenses and medical supports not covered by insurance
This fund is capped at $3000 per student per calendar year.
Eligibility
Indigenous students registered in any undergraduate or graduate program at the University of Waterloo, including affiliated and federated institutions of Waterloo.
For the purposes of this fund, an Indigenous person is one who is a citizen or member of a First Nations, Métis, or Inuit as defined in the Canadian Constitution Act 1982.
Please note that in order to have access to the fund, students will need to upload their citizenship/membership documents in Quest as per the University of Waterloo’s Indigenous Citizenship/Membership Verification Guidelines.
Application
While we will make every effort to address ISDF requests as soon as we can, please allow for 7-10 business days for processing time.