The Loran award is an incredible scholarship valued at $100,000. And it’s given to people based on the evidence of character, commitment to service in the community and leadership potential. And for this True North Tale, I got to sit down with Kyran, a recipient of this award from right here in the Northwest Territories. Kyran starts by telling us how he heard about the award.
So it all started because my friend Richard who works with the school board here, I’m living with him right now. He’s very much in the loop with everything that deals with education, academics, and post-secondary, right, so Loran is one of the largest scholarships in Canada, and I didn’t actually know about it, and he read a bit about it, I’m guessing at work or when I was at home and thought I’d be a perfect fit. So he gave me a very pointed recommendation. And, you know, I looked over Loran; their principles, what they stand for what kind of scholarship they are, and I’m like, Okay, I have a serious chance at this, I’m going to go for it.
Kyran tells us what he was feeling when he found out he’d be receiving the Loran award,
That must have been one of the most cathartic moments of my life. Because it was, you know, right in front of me where I realized that the character I wish to be and kind of cultivate throughout my life is seen as worth investing in literally and figuratively. And that must have been one of the best feelings in the world because you know, it’s kind of reaffirmed in a snowball kind of way that you can choose to put in the kind of work that scares you and makes you better in the long run and see the results directly
Now with a sea of possibilities in front of them. Kyran tells me what he plans to do with the Loran award
Now that I know I have this smart scholarship and the backing of this organization with the best of their abilities, still very sure that I want to go into post-secondary and I got accepted into UBC, I’m going to go to the Bachelor of Arts
and go into education
Lastly, Kyran has some advice for students who might be in a similar position that he was in at the start of high school, which is believing that what you want to achieve is impossible.
I think the old adage rings true where what you fear is what you see, aiming at possibilities that I’ve put it actualized now was a scary thing because there’s always that level of self-doubt and thinking whether Can you do it or not, but why not resolve it? You can because it’s going to be self-fulfilling if you have the belief that’s required. – Kyran Alikamik, Loran Award Recipiant
