“This bursary was inspirational,” says Celaleddin Güllüce, the first recipient of the M.C. Bjarnason Bursary, set up by Mildred Bjarnason (pictured right). “I would like to do the same thing for another student once I have the necessary means.”

It’s fitting that Güllüce should say that.

Bjarnason, who in Grade 5 knew she wanted to be a teacher, also knew that it would be an uphill battle to get there. As one of seven children in a working class family in the 1940s, money was tight. Bjarnason knew that she would always be clothed and fed by her parents, but there was no money for extras like a university education.

Determined, and with the encouragement of her teachers and her father, Bjarnason began saving 50 cents a month from a job during recess where she put the water on to boil for the teachers’ coffee break. She saved her allowance of 5 cents a week. When Bjarnason began babysitting, that too went into her savings account. And on she saved, from her summer job at the Eaton’s store in downtown Winnipeg to her job working weekends in a candy shop on Portage Avenue, which continued with 20 hours a week as she went to university.

While her grades weren’t as high as she hoped because she was working so much, Bjarnason graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in 1953, a prerequisite for the bachelor of education she earned in 1957.

Along the way, Bjarnason received a $50 bursary. “It was nirvana,” she says, as it took the pressure off her finances and meant she could focus on school.

Now retired, and in a position to give back, Bjarnason [MEd/76] has established a bursary to help students in financial need. She says of working towards her arts degree: “It was one difficult struggle that never ended. But in 1953 I became the first person in our family to have studied and graduated from university.” She hopes this bursary helps future students reach their goals, just as she was helped.

“When I received the bursary I was happy and surprised,” says Güllüce, who came from Turkey to study Economics at the University of Manitoba. “I was happy because it helped me a lot with my expenses, and I was surprised because I did not think that there are people out there who care about students, especially someone they don’t know personally.”

“I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart for being so kind and generous towards students,” he adds.

The Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative has also made a contribution to the M.C. Bjarnason Bursary.