Surrey graduate earns $85,000 in scholarships after foster-care advocacy

Surrey graduate Madison-Lynn Perreault is heading to UBC’s nursing program in September after securing $85,000 in scholarships and bursaries for post-secondary education.

Perreault, who has been in foster care since she was four-and-a-half, says she wants her experience to show other young people in care that education can be within reach. She is Red River Métis and has dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.

Her advocacy has focused in part on supports for young people aging out of foster care. While in secondary school, she contacted an MLA and later spoke with B.C. Children and Family Development Minister Jodie Wickens about financial assistance available after graduation.

Perreault applied for more than 400 scholarships. For her Grade 12 capstone project, she built a website identifying more than 70 scholarships and bursaries for youth in foster care, with eligibility and application information.

She estimates she completed about 2,000 volunteer hours in high school through student leadership, Indigenous initiatives, the Surrey Delta Métis Association, B.C. Youth Parliament and youth political organizations. This summer, a school-supply fundraiser she began in September 2025 assembled more than 90 backpacks for the Surrey School District, including its Indigenous department.