Victoria Elkington awarded $120, 000 Schulich Scholarship, Queen’s Chancellor’s Award for academic and community leadership.
Victoria Elkington is latest of three Kingston high school students this year to receive the Schulich Leader Scholarship, a $120,000 scholarship awarded to 100 students across Canada pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM).
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Elkington, a Holy Cross graduate, was also awarded the Queen’s Chancellor’s Scholarship, a $48,000 award given to students entering Queen’s University who demonstrate exceptional leadership, academic achievement and community involvement. Together, the scholarships amount to more than $165,000 in funding.
When Elkington pulled her car over on a day off school and saw the Queen’s Chancellor’s Scholarship notification pop up on her phone, she was stunned. Just weeks later, while making oatmeal and talking with her mom, another surprise landed in her inbox — an email informing her that she had also won the Schulich Leader Scholarship.
“I just put my phone down,” she said in an interview with the Whig. “I just let my mom read the rest of that email because I was so stunned. It was like such a crazy surreal thing because like, it’s the biggest scholarship in Canada for (the university) level.”
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“It changes a lot for me — now I can live in residence and focus on my studies without the added stress of working throughout the school year, which probably would’ve affected my grades,” Elkington said.
Her high school career, she explained, was intentionally structured to make the most of both science and leadership opportunities. She fast-tracked multiple courses, tackling Grade 12 physics and chemistry by Grade 11 and excelling in English.
Outside the classroom, Elkington launched her own crochet business in Grade 9, using profits to support local causes, including a pediatric cancer ward and Ukrainian relief efforts. Her commitment to service expanded when she volunteered for a local youth-oriented kitchen skills initiative to help children with learning disabilities be able to cook and began working for a local startup, eventually managing its social media and advertising.
“I’ve learned a lot about business just by doing,” she said.
Elkington is planning to study engineering chemistry at Queen’s, with a certificate in business from the Smith School of Business — a combination that she feels reflects both her academic strengths and entrepreneurial drive.
“I had previously talked to my counsellor about looking for a program possibly where I would be able to combine both, science and entrepreneurial ideas. So when I decided to go to Queens’s, I found out that I could add on like a certificate from the Smith School Business to my degree and is another reason why I picked the school,” she said.
Elkington credits several mentors with helping her through the intense workload and ambitions she carried with her throughout high school. Her youth worker, Leeanne Amell, provided support in stress management and time balancing, Elkington explaining how her support allowed her to pursue all her interests. Her chemistry teacher, Kathleen Waller, also played a critical role. “She really wanted me to succeed, and that was incredibly motivating,” Elkington said.
Also captain of the Kingston Sharks in the Ontario Women’s Football League. Elkington joined the league in Grade 10, shortly after her experience with anorexia — a shift she describes as life-changing.
“I wouldn’t be who I am today without football,” she said. “It taught me mental and physical strength, leadership and what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself.”
From organizing fundraisers to running recruitment and even helping to lead a fall development program, Elkington explained that now as captain, her role on the team has grown alongside her personal growth. Now in her final season with the Sharks, she plans to join Queen’s women’s football team and continue advocating for the expansion of women’s football at the university level.
“There’s still no tackle football for women at universities in Canada,” she said. “There’s a missed opportunity there. There are so many talented athletes graduating with nowhere to go.”
Elkington said she is most excited about getting to learn more about engineering and be a part of university social life.
“I’m excited about getting to learn at the higher level because, it’s kind of hard to tell what engineering is going be like from a high school standpoint — we don’t really have anything like that,” she said. “I know Queen’s is definitely more social side in terms of universities in Canada, and I’m really excited for that because I feel like being able to make those connections with students and just having peers interested in the same kinds of things as you can help you get through the years because (engineering-chemistry) is a hard degree,” she said.
Looking ahead to Queen’s, she feels ready for what’s next.
“It’s been a crazy ride,” she said. “I feel like everything just kind of worked out how it needed to for me to go to Queen’s.”
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