Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation

Founded in 1988, the Loran Scholars Foundation was the first national organization in Canada to grant scholarships based on a mix of academic achievement, extracurricular activity and leadership potential. Our founders responded to what they recognized as a gap in the Canadian system of merit-based financial assistance to university students. Such assistance tended to be directed to two groups - those with exceptionally high academic averages, via university scholarship programs, and those with exceptional abilities as athletes, via national teams programs. Only a small proportion of overall financial aid was directed at those who show promise of the leadership and other talents that will make their communities better places both during and after their university careers. In the words of our founder Dr. Robert Cluett, at the heart of our work is the belief that "breadth, openness to challenge, and willingness to take risk are many times more important than any quantitative measure of promise. It is a belief that we still hold quite strongly today. In 2007, we adopted "Loran" as the name for our merit awards. The name was chosen because Loran is used for long-range navigation and we emphasize long-term relationships with our scholars as well as long-term impact in communities across Canada. As a navigation system, Loran requires three points. These three points correspond with our three core values - character, service and leadership - which we hope our scholars will continue to use to chart their own courses. In 2014, we changed our name from the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation to the Loran Scholars Foundation to reinforce our focus on identifying and developing leaders of character. We are an independent charitable organization governed by a Board of Directors. Our charitable registration number is 855-132643-RR0001.