1st-ever First Nations student among 3 Rhodes scholars named at U of A – CBC

Nov 24, 2015

Billy-Ray Belcourt, Carley-Jane Stanton and Zia Saleh have been awarded the prestigious scholarship

Three University of Alberta students, awarded one of the world’s most coveted scholarships, have each taken an unlikely path to academic excellence.

Billy-Ray Belcourt, Carley-Jane Stanton and Zia Saleh have been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and will be travelling to England this fall to attend Oxford University.

Belcourt is the first ever First Nations person in Canada to receive the scholarship.

Belcourt comes from the small reserve community of the Driftpile First Nation, north of Edmonton.

“I was raised by my grandparents in a single-income home, in a small hamlet of about 100 people and my high school graduating class only had about 22 people.”