TORONTO (JTA) — Canadian mining magnate Seymour Schulich has established a $100 million endowment to encourage students in Canada and Israel to study science, technology, engineering and math.
"What I am trying to do in Canada is equivalent to the Rhodes scholarship," Schulich, 71, told the Toronto Star. "I’m trying to emulate my own experience, just like Cecil Rhodes did. It’s not so much about science as much as creating leaders."
Once fully implemented in 2014, the program will provide 75 students annually — 60 from Canada and 15 from Israel — with Schulich Leader Scholarships worth $60,000 over four years for each recipient.
Twenty Canadian and five Israeli universities are invited to gather nominations from some 1,600 high schools. Schulich, one of Canada’s best-known Jewish business leaders, has chosen the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Toronto to administer the endowment.
Schulich said he did not inaugurate the program because he felt Canada needed help against foreign competition. But Israel, he told the Montreal Gazette, is a different story.
"We can’t outnumber the Arabs," he said, "so we’ve got to be smarter than them."
