Burnaby grads whose last two years of high school were seriously disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic have earned more than $7 million in scholarships this year.
Some of the highlights include a full-ride scholarship to Harvard awarded to Burnaby North Secondary’s Owen Ebose, according to the Burnaby school district.
His fellow North grads Claire and Vanessa Scrimini have also earned sizeable awards, with Claire winning the $70,000 TD Scholarship for Community Leadership and Vanessa winning the $36,000 Queen’s Chancellor Scholarship.
Over at École Moscrop Secondary, Carlos Georgescu was awarded the $80,000 Schulich Leader scholarship at UBC.
Another $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship, this one for the University of Waterloo, was awarded to a student at a local private school this year: Alicia Bremer of St. Thomas More Collegiate.
Nine grads from Burnaby or Burnaby schools also won scholarships worth up to $40,000 each from the Beedie Luminaries scholarship program started by Burnaby-born developer Ryan Beedie in 2018.
This year’s local luminaries were Haley Wong, a Burnaby resident who attends Britannia Community Secondary in Vancouver; Henok Kibrea Dubus and Sana Alzaza from Byrne Creek; Michelle Nguyen, Logan Wilmarth and Siham Abdelhameed from Burnaby North; Gaeun (Amy) Nam from Burnaby Mountain; Emily Wong-Abdul from Moscrop; and Younathan Terefe from Burnaby South.
Every little bit counts when it comes to paying for post-secondary education, and new this year is the Clint Morrison Scholarship, an award exclusively for students in the Burnaby school district.
The $500 scholarship is for students enrolled in a pre-employment program or ACCESS program who have demonstrated community mindedness and are registered for post-secondary courses or job-training in 2021/22.
Burnaby Mountain Secondary’s Megan De Marchi is one of this year’s winners.
Along with academic scholarships, the school district says students at local public schools have also scooped up a total of about $2.3 million in athletic scholarships in recognition of both their athletic prowess and grades.
And not all the scholarships won by students at Burnaby public schools have yet been counted, according to the district, so this year’s total will likely be more than $7 million.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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