Making a Difference
The Françoise and Yvan Lepage Scholarship Fund
A bright young man growing up in rural Ontario, Yvan G. Lepage came from a large family of modest means. This Sarsfield native was able to pursue his university studies, all the way to his Ph.D., thanks to the financial support he received in the form of bursaries, scholarships and student loans.
Dr. Lepage then became a popular professor at the University of Ottawa, working in the Département de français from 1977 to 2005, and acting as department chair from 1981 to 1982 and again from1986 to 1989. His distinguished career also saw him work at the Faculty of Arts as assistant vice-dean and secretary from 1989 to 2004.
Yvan and his wife, Françoise, had often discussed their desire to create a scholarship fund “as a way of giving thanks for the support he received and to encourage students to fulfill their academic dreams.”
The Françoise and Yvan Lepage Scholarship Fund, created through his estate, satisfies the desire they had to help students in the same way Yvan was helped. The scholarship offers assistance to a student in a PhD or master’s program.
The Fund also recognizes Françoise LePage’s involvement in children’s literature, which she taught for 10 years in the University of Ottawa’s Département de français, as well as her contribution to Franco-Ontarian literature as an author and collections manager.