Douglas – Mykola Luty loves physics and grew up watching space and science documentaries on the subject with his mother and getting extra lessons in math almost daily from his dad.
Now the Eganville-area youth, who was born in Ukraine and moved here in 2014 with his family, has been awarded Canada’s most coveted undergraduate scholarship – the Schulich Leader Scholarship. Valued at $100,000, it will fund his entire four years of studies at Queen’s in Kingston where he will study physics with a specialization in astro physics.
“Astro physics has always been interesting to me,” the 18-year-old Opeongo High School graduate said. “I’d watch documentaries as a kid with my mom. I have also been fascinated with nuclear energy and nuclear fusion and I think it would be very interesting to work in nuclear fusion because I think that’s going to be where energy is leading us. I think it would be pretty incredible working on the frontier of that.”
Earlier this year, Mykola was chosen as the nominee from Opeongo High School to compete for the scholarship which recognizes exceptional individuals with promising potential in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Recipients, known as Schulich Leaders, become part of a distinguished community of scholars dedicated to making substantial contributions to their respective fields and inspiring positive change in the world.
Schulich Leader Scholarships are Canada’s most coveted undergraduate STEM scholarships. Each year, 100 are awarded to entrepreneurial-minded high school graduates enrolling in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math program at 20 partner universities across Canada. Half are valued at $120,000 for engineering scholarships and half are valued at $100,000 for science and math scholarships. Every high school in Canada can nominate one graduating student each year to apply for the scholarship.
In a broader perspective, each year there are 300,000 candidates, 1,500 nominees and 100 scholarships awarded.
Mykola was one of several Opeongo students considered. Each nominee then prepared a resume “to sell themselves to the decision makers”. The school decided in January Mykola would be Opeongo’s nominee.
After being selected as a nominee, the next step is the Schulich scholarship application process.
As part of that process, he required two letters of reference from teachers, and he also had to write an essay. The letters were written by teachers Amanda Hawkins, Math, and Jeff Scott, English.
“They were incredible letters,” Mykola said. “They have known me pretty much the entire time I’ve been at the high school. Ms. Hawkins was also my leadership teacher and Mr. Scott was the teacher in charge of the Shakespeare production at the school which I was a part of, and I figured they knew best what I did around the school. And I enjoyed them too as teachers. They are great teachers and great people.”
Mr. Scott’s daughter, Ellie received the scholarship four years ago when a student at Renfrew Collegiate Institute and she provided Mykola with some ideas on what to write in his essay as well as other advice. His essay focused on how Mykola and his brother, Kostya, were both interested in video games. Kostya, who wrote programming, and Mykola, who loves art and drawing and creating stories, combined forces and started a video game company.
“We made a few games,” he shared. “I also talked about my involvement in the school and how it has shaped me.”
There are 20 universities that participate in the scholarship program. The nominees’ Schulich application information is sent to the partner universities to which they applied. Larger universities like U of T and Queen’s each get 10 scholarships – five in engineering and five in science — to award while smaller ones get fewer.
Information on all of the nominees is sent out to the qualifying universities and then each university chooses who receives the scholarships. Mykola applied to Waterloo, McMaster, University of Toronto and Queens, all participating universities.
Mykola is fascinated with nuclear energy and nuclear fusion and feels it would be very interesting to work in that field because he believes it is going to be the direction for energy in the future.
“I think it would be pretty incredible working on the frontier of that,” he said.
He said it was an incredible feeling when he learned he had won the scholarship. He was in his physics class and checking through his emails when he saw one from Queen’s notifying him he had been awarded the scholarship.
“I just kind of sat there and said, ‘Oh my God, I won it’. I was pretty shocked. My guidance teacher, Sara (Edmison) was ecstatic.
“I went to tell Ms. Hawkins and Mr. Scott as soon as I could, as soon as the class ended. It was exciting.”
From when he was three years old, in Ukraine, Mykola’s dad did extra math lessons at home every day all the way through to high school.
Mykola was born in Ukraine and was eight when his family moved to Canada. Younger brother, Kostya, was also born there while their sister, Amber, was born in Canada.
His dad is Canadian born and raised in Ottawa. His parents, Con, who passed away in 2018, and Belva Luty, lived in Ottawa and at Lake Clear since the 1960s. The senior Mr. Luty was of Ukrainian descent. Brian Luty was selling real estate in Toronto in the early 2000s when an opportunity to do humanitarian work with orphanages in Ukraine arose and it was during one of his trips to Ukraine he met Natalya, his future spouse. The couple lived in Mykolaiv, in the southeast of Ukraine, not far from Crimea and the front lines.
Mr. Luty returned to Canada in 2014 with his spouse and family because of the volatile conditions in Ukraine.
Schulich Leaders can devote their full time and attention to their studies, as all of their financial needs are covered over the course of their studies. As a result, many of Canada’s highest potential students are winning these scholarships and will make game-changing contributions to society.
Just as valuable as the $100,000scholarship is the networking and mentoring opportunities. The Schulich Leader network provides ongoing mentorship and support to its students. One aspect of this is to connect upper year Schulich leaders with incoming students to provide guidance and advice as they navigate their new programs.
Mykola is thankful to Seymour Schulich for funding his scholarship, the Opeongo High School nominating committee for the trust they put in him, his current and former teachers at OHS and Eganville District Public School, and particularly those who wrote recommendation letters for him. He is also thankful to his guidance counsellor Sara Edmison, and teachers, Mike Fitzmaurice and Tim Demmons for their inspiration in STEM, his father who did extra school lessons with him, his mother for watching space and science documentaries which inspired him towards physics, and his family and school friends for their support.