Skilled trades student on how Schulich Builders scholarship lifted 'a huge weight off my shoulders'

Savannah Barnes was getting in the car to drive from her day job to her evening job in 2024 when a message on her phone caught her eye. The email was about a scholarship she’d applied for — and the news looked promising.

“I just saw ‘Schulich Builders’ and ‘Congratulations!’” says Barnes. “I was about to drive, so I grabbed my phone, and I threw it into the back seat of my car. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there's no way that’s what I think it is! I can't look at this! Like, I cannot look at this.”

The notion that Barnes, who was set to begin the Electrical Engineer Technician program at Sheridan College that fall, may have been awarded one of 10 Schulich Builders scholarships worth $40,000 (spoiler alert: she did) was just too much for her in that moment. Not when she still had to pull her evening shift as a bartender. 
Instead, she went to work, waitressing and serving drinks until 11 p.m., and then went home to bed. Incredibly, it was only the next morning that she felt ready to open that email and bask in the joyous news.  

“You know, I'd never seen $20,000. Even with all the work that I was doing up until that summer, that was the first time I saw over, maybe, like $2,000 in my bank account.”

Launched in 2023 by the Schulich Foundation, the Schulich Builders Scholarships aim to help Ontario fill the need for more skilled-trade workers, where one in six job openings are projected to be in 2026. Schulich supports 120 scholarships across 12 Ontario colleges every year, valued at $40,000 for a two-year diploma program and $20,000 for a one-year certificate program, covering everything from CNC and precision machining, to plumbing, welding and electrical. 

Barnes found out about the scholarships after being accepted by Sheridan College’s Magna School for the Skilled Trades and, like many students, initially balked at the idea of applying, thinking she was unlikely to receive an award. In the end, she changed her mind — and she is glad she did.  

“It was just such a huge weight off my shoulders,” she says, describing being able focus just on school in her first year as “a break and a huge blessing,” after working two jobs for a year between high school and college.

Barnes had long been interested in the skilled trades growing up. Originally from Brampton, her family moved to South River, Ont., a town almost three hours up off Highway 11 on the way to North Bay, in January 2020. It was there, while in Grade 12, that she took an automotive class that elevated her love for working with her hands. 

Her interest was further piqued by the conversations she had with the various tradespeople she was serving drinks to during her gap year, hearing about what their jobs were like when they came into the sports bar she was working at. What she heard sounded like a demanding career — but to Barnes held a lot of appeal.

“I don't want to be stuck at a desk,” says Barnes, who had a 96 average in high school. “I love to be creative. I love to work with my hands, and I don't want to be doing the same thing every day.”  

Though she had already applied to Sheridan, Barnes confirmed her interest in the trades by asking one of the regulars she served, who happened to own an electrical business, if she could shadow her.

Things went so well, the woman offered her a job. 

Though grateful, Barnes stuck with her plan to go to school — and is extremely happy she did. 

“The Schulich Builders scholarship was just such a huge weight off my shoulders.”

– Savannah Barnes

“Sheridan has been a huge blessing. It’s been a great opportunity. Everyone here, the staff, they're all phenomenal people,” she says, listing the various areas of her program that her eyes have been opened to, things such as renewable energy, fire-alarm systems, and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers).

“It's a really nice campus and the facilities are phenomenal,” Barnes adds, describing how the eight-year-old Magna Skilled Trades Centre not only provides 130,000 square feet of workshops, classrooms and facilities, but has encased its energy system in glass, so that students can observe and learn how it works, serving as a living lab.

Barnes is planning to graduate this spring. When asked what lies ahead for her, she muses about the possibility of working on giant wind turbines in the renewable energy field, or something more traditional, such as “pulling wire” in residential construction to start. She also talks about one day starting her own company. “That way I can be my own boss, the way I always wanted to,” she says.

She can also imagine a day when she returns to Sheridan — but as a teacher. 

“I do really like teaching and being there for people,” she says. “In my ideal world, I'd love to see myself working while also teaching an apprentice or student. That way, I'll get the privilege of adding to the representation I feel so many women interested in the trades lack growing up."