Each year Harbourside awards five scholarships of $1,000 to high school students for their post secondary education.  Students from all school districts in Greater Victoria are eligible, and this year we had 24 applicants.  Awards are based on academic achievement, citizenship, community involvement and non-academic achievement such as sports, artistic achievement and work experience.  Pat Morris thanked his committee including Darrel Jensen, Lauren Moline, Trace Grunerud and Karla Dolinsky, and also past members Dennis Truss and George Prince for their mentorship.   Congratulations to this year's recipients.
 
Rachel Kelly’s interaction with her community is extensive and follows closely with the Rotary values of service above self and citizenship.  She has been her student body president for two years, is an honour role student,  an active member of her school’s community action service group and a Youth Team Leader with Coast Capital Savings Youth Team.   Her citizenship has included volunteering at Our Place, Raising funds for Nepalese Earthquake Victims ($4000), being the president of her Model United Nations Day, and producing a video to raise awareness for the recent “Day of the Girl Child” event.  She established and coached the first basketball team for Grade 6-7 boys where she mentored & encouraged them through the middle school basketball league and the UVIC Vikes Future Stars Basketball Tournament. She now coaches a girls team in response to that success.  In addition, Rachel teaches financial education seminars to encourage youth to understand the financial world better.  Rachel has been accepted into the Commerce Program at the University of Victoria where she will begin her studies next week.
 
Hanna Buchanan is a very accomplished young woman.  Beyond her stellar academics, she is a member of the Oak Bay Interact Club and has spent a year fundraising and volunteering for a girls school in Malawi, working women in Guatemala, signs of Hope in Africa, and Disaster Aid Canada.  Hanna was a Teacher's Assistant for a math and a French immersion science class and is a paid tutor in Math, French and English.   She volunteers at Our Place  participates in dancing, choreography and coordinating school events such as assemblies, choir and band concerts.  The last few years Hanna's wire sculptures have been available for sale in Sidney and exhibited on the Fairfield Artist Tour.  She holds a part time job in a retail shop.   Hanna's greatest passion is writing and she's already been published in the Poetry Institute of Canada's 2011 Anthology of Verse.   At this time, Hanna is settling herself in Montreal to attend Concordia's Honours in English and Creative Writing Program with the goal of becoming a publisher and author.  Her mother Kristi Buchanan (former member of our club) accepted the scholarship on her behalf.
 
Ruby Tang covers a lot of ground with her extra-curricular activities.   She is a volunteer at the Royal BC Museum, studies piano & violin including participation in the SD #61 Festival Orchestra and provincial ensemble, is a part of the debate team as well as competed in sports including rugby, cross country & badminton.  Her community participation has focused on campaigns for human rights through Amnesty International, where she is her school’s Club Co-President, promotes environmental issues and sustainable practices with her school, raising funds for cancer research and served as a peer tutor and treasurer of the Student Council.  Her focus on Rotary values has come from serving as the President & Co-President of the Oak Bay High Interact Club.  Ruby is in Toronto where she is enrolled this fall at the University of Toronto for International Relations (including Peace & Conflict Studies).
 
James Ashwell has been a Rotary Interact member for the last four years, which has connected him to the Rotary values of service above self.   Although he just moved to Victoria for his Grade 12 year from Dawson Creek, James has jumped into the local community with both feet. During this last year, James was the chair of the Amazing Race Fundraiser, Co-leader of the Amnesty International Youth Club, Interact Club Member, Member of the Frisbee Team, Member of the Sing Your Joy Community Choir, worked part-time at the Fairfield Petro Station and maintained a straight A average.   In 2014, James took the challenge of being a Rotary Exchange student and lived in Germany for the year.  He found his love of government and politics in that experience and has since been accepted at the University of Ottawa, and as a Parliamentary Page in the House of Commons beginning in the fall. 
 
Anna Legault is a Rotary Exchange Student newly returned from Italy as she begins her post-secondary Education through UBC’s International relations Program which takes her to France this fall to begin at the leading Political Science School, Sciences Po.   Anna has ambitions to work for the United Nations and has had experience volunteering at an orphanage in Thailand for a month.  She graduated from Esquimalt High where she was the captain of Peer Tutoring and become the official peer tutor for international students.  She organized school wide assemblies, was the president of Escape, a social justice club, where multiple fundraisers were organized and coordinated the Amnesty International’s Write-for-Rights event.  To make ends meet and save for post-secondary school, Anna has worked as a lifeguard and swimming instructor while maintaining a perfect 5.0 GPA.