A Fleming College student has won one of only 24 national Garfield Weston Merit Scholarship for College Scholars.

Emma Kempe of Thunder Bay is an ecosystem management student at the Frost Campus. She’s entering the second year of a two-year program and plans to take a third year option.

Ms Kempe will receive funding to cover her expenses for the balance of her college career — her tuition and an $8,000 stipend each year. She will also have access to $3,500 in funding for summer experience projects in Canada or abroad related to her field of study and will receive $4,000 to cover costs she may have already incurred during her studies.

Ms Kempe was homeschooled, and self-taught after the age of 14. She attended college for a few months to study for and write her high school equivalency exams, and was awarded two scholarships there, too.

Ms Kempe is a member of the Youth Volunteer Corps and has worked with the Therapeutic Riding Association. She also founded and is a steering committee member of Cattails Community Farm, a community shared agriculture project through which members provide organic food for themselves and seven other families. Ms Kempe has also fundraised for the Northwest Writer’s Workshops.

Edlynne Laryea, marketing director of the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation, says being awarded the scholarship is “absolutely not just academic” achievement recognition. She says students are rewarded for being “an interesting person with really great character and leadership potential.”

The College’s assistant registrar nominated Ms Kempe for the scholarship. There were about 900 applications for the award.

Ms Kempe is in the Queen Charlotte Islands with her mother, working on a farm. Reached there earlier this week, she says she was surprised to learn she had won the scholarship, “with all the talented people in the world.”

Earlier this summer, Ms Kempe worked planting trees in northern Ontario, and says she’s glad she found out about the scholarship after her work.

“I would not have been quite as motivated” to find a paying job, she says.

Of the scholarship, Ms Kempe says, “It’s more than I need. It motivates you to think how can I give back? Now my job is to go out and find things to do in the community. It’s opened up the world for me, really.”

The scholarships were established in 1999 with the support of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation. Applicants are assessed through individual and panel interviews by volunteer leaders from the business and academic communities.

© Copyright 2006, mykawartha.com

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