Ainsley Wood, 18, is one of 20 winners nationwide of a TD Scholarship for Community Leadership.
Ainsley Wood, 18, is one of 20 winners nationwide of a TD Scholarship for Community Leadership.
A graduate from Kelowna Secondary School who turned a life-changing challenge into an opportunity to make a positive difference in the community is one of 20 young people awarded the TD Bank Group’s 2024 TD Scholarships for Community Leadership.
Ainsley Wood, 18, was recognized for her outstanding commitment to community leadership and will receive up to $70,000, including up to $10,000 for tuition and $7,500 for living expenses per year for a maximum of four years.
“I’m so honoured to be part of the TD Scholars,” she said.
Wood’s story is one of perseverance in the face of adversity.
In the summer of 2020, Wood was playing hide and seek with her brother and her friend when she fell from a tree. That fall resulted in a high level spinal cord injury and left the 14-year-old a quadraplegic, meaning all four of her limbs were impacted. She has a little movement of her arms.
That life-changing injury led Wood to become involved in her community as she recognized she needed positivity in her life to rehabilitate, grow and move forward.
Wood realized with her perseverance and positivity she could make a difference in the world for others.
From her own experiences, Wood said she definitely knows the struggles facing people with disabilities.
“I know I have a strong voice that can make a difference, and I feel like I have a responsibility to do that and I’m honoured to take on that responsibility,” she said.
Wood said her remarkable strength and resilience following the fall came from the support from her family, friends and the community.
“Seeing how a community could come together and support me, definitely made me want to give back to that same community that was there for me in challenging times,” Wood said.
Wood has a number of leadership endeavours, but the one dearest to her heart was her first step into supporting youth with disabilities while she was still a patient at Sunnyhill Rehabilitation Centre at the B.C. Children’s Hospital.
It was still during the pandemic, so children were not allowed to have their friends and only a limited number of family members come in, even for holidays.
“For a kid, Halloween is a big deal,” Wood said. “I wanted to not only create happiness and normalcy for myself, but for everyone on the unit.”
Wood brought together all the therapists, rehabilitation assistants and recreation assistants and initiated an accessible Halloween event so that no child was left out.
Wood has also been invited to speak as a person with lived experience to over 50 medical professionals at a Praxis Spinal Cord Institute panel at Kelowna General Hospital to help improve spinal cord injury care.
While that might have been daunting to some 18-year-olds, Wood said she was excited to share her story and use her voice to make a difference.
Wood is also part of the Rick Hanson Youth Leadership Community and is a volunteer peer mentor for youth with spinal cord injuries with Spinal Cord Injury B.C.
Wood said it’s mostly men who experience spinal cord injuries, so to find a female to connect with is amazing.
As a volunteer peer mentor, she aims to help other youth with spinal cord injuries navigate that new experience and tackle accessibility-related barriers in a creative way.
“One of the biggest things I find helps people with disabilities is to come together and to connect and to share their experiences with one another,” she said. “That’s what I hope to do with being a part of all these different initiatives, is to share my story so that hopefully others can learn from it.”
Wood will be studying psychology this fall at UBC Okanagan. She is considering a career path in law, as she enjoys advocating for others, or clinical psychology, so she can provide one-on-one support to individuals.
The TD scholarship means any financial burdens or stressors will be alleviated, leaving Wood to not only focus on her education but also giving her time and energy to focus on some of her community leadership initiatives.
Wood just got back from Ottawa, where she got to meet the other 2024 TD Scholars as well as attend workshops and a ceremony.
“I can definitely tell we’ve made a lifelong connection. It was really inspiring to see all these amazing young change-makers,” she said.
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