Terry Fox Humanitarian Award: Eligibility, Values Assessed, and the Interview Weekend
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Jun 21, 2026 • Scholarships & Funding, Canadian Universities & Colleges
The Terry Fox Humanitarian Award pays up to $28,000 across four years of post-secondary study, sent directly to your school in two $3,500 installments each year. You qualify through uncompensated humanitarian service, not grades or financial need, and the deciding step is a face-to-face interview with a provincial committee, held in your home province rather than at one national event.
💵 Up to $28,000 total: $7,000 a year, paid in September and January installments
📩 Must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, in good academic standing, with real uncompensated humanitarian service
Open to secondary school graduates and students entering their second year of CEGEP
⏱️ The 2026-27 application cycle opens November 1, 2026
What the Award Pays
The Terry Fox Humanitarian Award provides up to $28,000 total across four years of post-secondary study, according to terryfoxawards.ca . Each year, $7,000 is paid directly to your Canadian post-secondary institution in two installments of $3,500, one in September and one in January. Because the money goes to your school rather than to you, it applies against tuition and fees rather than arriving as a personal stipend.
Who Can Apply
You need Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status and good academic standing. You must be a secondary school graduate or entering your second year of CEGEP, planning to study for your first degree or diploma at a Canadian post-secondary institution. There is no minimum grade average published, and there is no financial need test. The qualifying factor is your record of voluntary humanitarian activity you were never paid for.
What Humanitarian Service Means Here
The award looks for dedication to the humanitarian ideals associated with Terry Fox: sustained, uncompensated work that improves other people's welfare, combined with courage in overcoming your own obstacles and a record of persistence in academic, athletic or civic life. A single short-term volunteer placement carries less weight than an ongoing commitment where you took on real responsibility, especially one connected to a personal experience of adversity you worked to overcome.
The Interview: Provincial, Not a National Weekend
Unlike some other major Canadian scholarships that bring finalists together for one multi-day national event, the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award decides finalists through individual, face-to-face interviews held in your own province. A Provincial Interview Committee made up of Terry Fox Humanitarian Scholars, alumni and other program associates conducts these interviews, typically in April. You are responsible for your own travel to the interview location, since it happens locally rather than at a single central site.
After interviews conclude, the Selection Committee reviews the shortlist and recommends candidates to the program's Board of Directors, also in April. New scholars are then contacted directly by phone once the Board finalizes its decision, rather than through a group announcement event.
Applying for the 2026-27 Cycle
The 2025-26 application cycle has closed. The next cycle, for students starting in fall 2027, opens for submission on November 1, 2026. Build your application around one or two sustained humanitarian commitments you can describe in real detail, including what obstacles you personally worked through, rather than listing every volunteer activity on your record.