Ashley Theriault felt a weight lift off of her shoulders when she was awarded a Justice Ronald B. Lester Memorial Youth Foundation bursary.
“It’s going to help me mostly with tuition and books. It’s going to help me create a ground so I don’t have to work next year, which is really amazing for a person who’s trying to support herself,” said the Thunder Bay high school student.
Theriault and St. Patrick High School student Antea Plesa were this year’s recipients of the $5,000 bursaries.
Theriault is attending the pre-health program at Confederation College this September, with hopes of moving on to Lakehead University’s nursing program.
She said receiving the bursary made her feel hopeful.
“For the past couple of months, I’ve been worrying about how am I going to pay for college?” she said.
For Plesa, the bursary will make her first year of university a little easier.
“This bursary is going to help me so much with tuition and books,” she said.
Plesa will be attending the University of Waterloo’s biochemistry program in the fall. She has an interview next week for their conditional admissions to pharmacy program, which would mean two years of undergrad study before entering the pharmacy program.
“I’ve always been really into biochemistry and medicine. Last year I volunteered at Janzen’s Pharmacy and I got a taste of what exactly the profession is like and I just feel I had to go into it,” Plesa said.
There are two criteria for the bursary – financial need and community service.
Justice Ronald B. Lester Memorial Youth Foundation president Susan Lester said both young women have an outstanding community service record.
“We have two ladies that come from different streams of community service,” she said.
Plesa has been involved in various school activities as well as volunteered with the Croatian-Canadian Recreation Centre and her church as well as the Canada Games Complex Adventure Camp.
“On the other hand, we have a young lady who due to family circumstances is on her own, but has managed to work way up in the ranks of the army cadets and as well be a participant in the most prestigious and demanding Duke of Edinburgh Awards,” she said of Theriault.
“We’re very, very proud of them,” Lester said.
Since 2000, $150,000 worth of bursaries have been awarded to 34 Thunder Bay students.
Lester said it’s to help the students pay tuition so they hopefully don’t have to work part-time jobs in their first year of post-secondary education.
“We want them to get a good foundation and grounding so they’re not having to worry about financial problems in their first year of college or university,” she said.
