Graduating Westsyde Secondary School student Seth Carne is a bonafide number cruncher — just one of his qualities that’s earned him a prestigious $100,000 scholarship.
Carne said he was walking into class when he checked his email to find he’d been chosen by the University of Calgary as the recipient of the Schulich Leader Scholarship.
“I’m walking into class and my hands are shaking, like, 'What is happening?' And I go tell Miss Carlson, ‘I think I just won the Schulich,’ and she’s like ‘what?’” he recalled.
Every high school in Canada can nominate one of its students enrolling in at STEM program at a partnering university for the awards, valued at a minimum of $100,000 that will go towards education costs.
There are more than 300,000 applicants annually across the country that are narrowed down to just 100, and Carne is the first WSS student to be awarded the scholarship in the school’s history.
Julia Carlson, WSS teacher and scholarship coordinator who first suggested Carne apply for the scholarship, said they couldn’t believe it.
“He’s obviously kind of elated and in shock, doesn’t know what to say, and so I was like, ‘I don’t really think you should be in class, I don’t think you can do this right now. I think you need to go walk around, tell people, call your parents,’” she said.
His 99 per cent GPA, work with the school district advisory council, junior city council, peer tutoring, as well as volunteering with track and field meets and weekly math challenges are some of the reasons Carlson thought he’d be a well-rounded applicant.
“Beyond that, he's just such a leader in our school. He's kind, he's caring, he's extremely humble, he's involved in so many different things,” Carlson said.
The rigorous application process included creating a video and responding to multiple essay questions about himself and his passions.
“I highlighted math, I think I’ve always had a fascination with patterns and relationships,” Carne said.
“When I figured out what math really is in high school, it just kind of called to me. I felt so passionate about it, so I wrote about my experience and how beautiful I find math — like the complexity and the interconnectedness of it all.”
He plans to follow his passion and work towards a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in Calgary and while he’s not sure where he’d like to go after that, for now he’s focused on learning as much as he can.
"I couldn't really imagine doing anything else," he said.
He’s also looking forward to seizing new opportunities in a larger city and seeing where it takes him.
“When Miss Carlson shooed me out of her classroom, it was really emotional because it's one of those scholarships that is kind of a real shot in the dark, because there are so many incredible applicants that apply each year and it's such a small chance,” Carne said.
“To have that opportunity was really emotional for my parents, because neither [of] my parents went to university, so it was going to be already a difficult process anyways, so this really just made it so easy and it was pretty incredible to be recognized for a lot of the work I put in.”
Back to Homepage
Must-Read Stories
