Portugal - Gaspar Côrte Real Scholarship

Portuguese Language and Culture Fund

Award created thanks to the generosity of Mr. Carlos Gomes da Silva

Award Overview

Value of the award:
Minimum $500
Number of awards:
Variable
Award frequency:
Annual
Level or program of study:
Undergraduate
Application Type:
Online Scholarship and Bursaries portal, accessible via uoZone.
Application Deadline:
November 3
Renewable:
No

Purpose of this Award

Recognize excellence in the area of Portuguese Language and Culture studies at the University of Ottawa.

Eligibility Criteria

The candidate must:

  1. be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, a person with the protected/refugee status or an international student
  2. be registered as a full-time student in an undergraduate program at the University of Ottawa
  3. have completed at least two courses in Portuguese at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
  4. demonstrate academic excellence

How to Apply

Submitted in the Online Scholarship and Bursaries portal, accessible via uoZone, and must include:

  1. an unofficial copy of the applicant's transcript

About this Award

This fund was established through the initiative of Mr. Carlos Gomes da Silva, Counsellor for Social and Cultural Affairs at the Portuguese Embassy and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Arts, of the University of Ottawa, who has decided to donate his annual remuneration as teacher of Portuguese courses at the University.

Gaspar Côrte Real was a Portuguese explorer. The youngest of three sons of Joad Vaz Corte Real (who himself may have visited Newfoundland before John Cabot), he supposedly lived in Lisbon as a servant to the Duke of Beja, who later became King Manuel of Portugal. In 1500, he received a charter from King Manuel to discover and claim jurisdiction over lands in the New World. On reaching North American Shores he found a land full of large trees and fertile soil, which he named Terra Verte (Greenland). The following year, he returned with three ships and travelled along what was probably the coast of Labrador and the Island of Newfoundland. The ships separated, probably along the southern part of Newfoundland. Two ships returned to Portugal, but Corte Real's seems to have headed in a southern direction and he was never heard from again.