Two Yellowknife Students Selected as Loran Scholars

Two Northern students have just been named as the recipients of a prestigious award!

Back in January, three NWT students, as well as 87 other students across Canada, were revealed to be finalists for the 2025 Loran Award. The Loran Scholarship Foundation was first launched in 1988, and keeps an eye out for graduating high school and CEGEP students across Canada who exhibit notable leadership abilities and demonstrate an exceptional strength of character. The Loran Award offers its recipients a four-year leadership program, a tuition waiver, and unique opportunities for additional learning.

Then in February, all finalists were gathered in Toronto for Loran’s National Selections event, where they would finally learn whether or not they would be named as 2025 Loran Scholars. Of the three NWT students, Audrey Debogorski and Stella Fairman were selected!

Audrey comes from Ecole St. Patrick High School, and has been acting as the co-presidents of the school’s social justice club. She has also helped raise money for cancer research by co-chairing the school’s Relay for Life event.

Also from St. Pats, Stella helped to bring back, and then lead the school’s Students Against Drunk Driving club, and also helps to raise money for cancer research, among other volunteer efforts. Later this year, the SADD group will be attending a conference in New Zealand to find Indigenous lead sobriety initiatives and bring those lessons back to the NWT.

Across the board, the Loran Scholars Foundation aims to empower young leaders so that they might make the world a better place than it was when they arrived. What makes a student viable for this award is not necessarily their grades, but the initiative they show in and around their community, and how eager they are to help others in creative ways.

This year saw an estimated 6,000 applications for the award, with 90 attending the Selections Event in Toronto, and only 36 being chosen as Loran Scholars.