MitoCanada believes in bright futures!

MitoCanada is proud to announce the 2024 mitoScholars program is open! This year, we will be awarding four scholarships to young adults living with mitochondrial disease to help reduce the financial barriers they may face in pursuing their post-secondary educational goals.

Our application portal is now closed. Chosen mitoScholars will be personally contacted in mid-late July 2024

What you need to know

Applications for the mitoScholars program do not guarantee funding for the upcoming educational year.

Employees and Board Directors of MitoCanada and their immediate family members are not eligible for this scholarship.

Selection of recipients will be at the discretion of a selection committee comprised of community leaders, health experts, and individuals with mitochondrial disease lived-experience.

Winners will be notified during the month of July via personal telephone calls and a confirmation letter. After a winner’s educational enrolment has been verified for the fall 2024 semester, any scholarship funds will be paid directly to the financial office at the recipient’s/student’s academic institution.

Individual scholarship amounts will be awarded, in the amount of $5,000 CAN, and must be used to cover the recipient’s tuition and/or required educational materials (if a student does not have a minimum of $5,000 CAN in tuition and required educational materials, the scholarship amount will only cover the actual cost of tuition and/or required materials).

Eligible educational expenses for the mitoScholars program include tuition, student fees, required educational materials and on-site residency. All other applicants will be notified by email.

Scholarship funds must be applied to the following expenses:

Tuition
Student fees
Required educational materials and/or
On-site residency

Download our mitoScholars program overview and share with your network

Those who meet the criteria below are encouraged to apply:

Citizens or permanent residents of Canada with a formal mitochondrial disease diagnosis or living with a parent/sibling with a formal mitochondrial disease diagnosis.
Pursuing a diploma, certificate, associate, undergraduate or graduate degree from a publicly-funded Canadian university, college or trade school
Enrolled in or awaiting acceptance from a publicly funded Canadian-based, post-secondary educational institution for the 2024 Fall semester

Deadline Details:

You must scan and upload all your supporting documents of your application online using our webform portal; total document file size must not exceed 20 MB
You will NOT be able to save your application and return to it at a future date; must upload all required documentation at one time/single step
All fields marked with an * are required
Incomplete applications and failure to complete mandatory sections will not be accepted
mitoScholars and mitoScholars+ will be reviewed and selected in July and notified if they have been chosen in August

There are five (5) components to the application process.

You will need:

Two reference letters/personal recommendation
One Proof of Diagnosis form
One Applicant Consent form (must be signed by a parent/ legal guardian, if applicant is less than 18 years of age at the time of application submission)
One copy of your program acceptance letter from the publicly funded trades or post-secondary school you will be attending in the Fall.
One-page essay (500 word max.), in either Word or PDF form, Calibri 11 point, single-spaced, which highlights:
- personal and academic goals,
- how you inspire others through community or school involvement,
- in what ways has living with a family member with a mitochondrial disease impacted your life, and
- how you will benefit from receiving this scholarship.