Lucy Gill, a Squamish local, just won the Laurier Scholars Award at Wilfrid Laurier University. Gill graduated from Howe Sound Secondary School in 2022 and is now a first year student and music major at Wilfrid Laurier University.
The Laurier Scholars Award is Laurier’s most prestigious entrance scholarship and is appointed to one student in each faculty.
According to the Laurier website, “the program supports high-achieving students in their studies and career development through mentorship, experiential learning opportunities and community engagement.”
The award is $40,000 toward the scholar’s degree, with an additional $10,000 grant toward an experiential learning opportunity of the scholar’s choosing.
“Along with getting the scholarship money, I'm put in a program where I collaborate with the other scholars from the different faculties, as well as upper year students and mentors from each faculty, to design projects that will hopefully improve our school as well as the greater community and world,” Gill said.
As far as what Gill wants to do with the $10,000 experiential grant, she said she will start going into “action mode” in her second year.
“I am a music major, so it'll be something based around music, for sure. And currently, what I'm looking at is either some sort of research project or community based project that focuses on social justice in music education,” Gill said.
Along with her music major and voice studies, Gill participates in social justice and human rights electives.
She was also part of Laurier's school musical this year, High School Musical, and has performed in two operas since starting university, La traviata with Laurier, and Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) with Grand River Opera. In her free time, Gill also enjoys creative writing.
Gill is excited for what the future holds and wants to thank the people and places that helped make it all possible.
“I think it's important to recognize that I wouldn't be here without the support of the teachers at Howe Sound Secondary School and for the support I got in the greater Squamish community. I think it's such a great community that we have, especially in music ... Squamish Academy of Music, and all the support I was given, really helped me to get where I am now.”
