COPA Rene Cutforth Memorial Scholarship

About the scholarship

The new COPA Rene Cutforth Memorial Scholarship celebrates the life, passion, and commitment of lifetime COPA member Rene Cutforth. The scholarship provides $1,000 each year to help female pilots pursuing their CPL or other additional ratings.

The scholarship was introduced in 2025 in partnership with Elevate Aviation and is generously supported by Elevate Aviation.

Apply for the scholarship

Applications for the 2026 COPA Scholarship Program are open from December 15, 2025 until 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, March 13, 2026

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Note: the application portal requires a separate login from your COPA membership account. You can set up your application portal with the same credentials as your COPA membership, but the application is on an external portal.

Make a donation

Interested in contributing to the future of General Aviation? COPA’S Flight Safety Foundation, which supports all its scholarship opportunities exclusively rely upon the generous donations of our flying community. To make a donation and to support a new generation of deserving flyers, please visit the following link:

DONATE TODAY

To inquire about starting a memorial scholarship fund, please reach out to COPA at copa@copanational.org

Criteria & Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must be current female COPA members with their membership having been in good standing for at least three months at the close of the application cycle.
Sharing personal reflections that promote mental health awareness and reduce stigma in aviation is optional but encouraged.
Applicants should be at least 18 years of age.
Applicants must at a minimum have their Private Pilot License (PPL) and provide proof of their PPL.
Applicants must be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

Eligible Expenses

Eligible costs of training include the following:

costs of ground school, including books and required materials for the courses;
costs of instructor time and training aircraft;
the direct flight training portion of tuition in programs offered by secondary or post-secondary schools, including colleges and universities.

Costs that are not covered include the following:

Non flight training tuition costs at secondary or post-secondary schools, including colleges and universities. Those seeking assistance with such costs should apply to the Scholarship and bursary programs usually available through those institutions. (E.g., Scholarships cannot be used to pay any part of the tuition of a college or university program where flight training costs are subsidized).
Personal meals or transportation to and from the training facility.
Clothing.
Aviation equipment or supplies which are not required for the program (ex: headsets, flight bags, e-tablets, etc).

Funds will only be disbursed to the flight school, not directly to the recipient, and can only be used to cover training costs incurred after the awarding of the scholarship. Training completed prior to the scholarship award is not eligible for funding.