GrantMe Reviews: Q&A with the Queen’s Commitment Scholar Award Winner

We sat down with GrantMe student and winner of the Queen’s Commitment Scholar Award winner, Emma! Emma, with the help of GrantMe, won a total of $72,000 in scholarships, including the Queen’s Commitment Scholar Award worth $48,000! Emma plans to go to Queen’s university to pursue her passion for public health. To watch Emma’s FULL interview, check out the video below!

Tell me about yourself

“Hi! I’m Emma. I’m from Ontario – a little town outside Toronto. Im in grade 12 this year, and headed to Queen’s next year for Health Sciences with help of my GrantMe scholarship!”

How much money did you win this GrantMe?

“I’m getting $48,000 with Queen’s. I won a little over 10 grand at most of the schools I applied to through entrance awards, and then an additional $14,000 at Queen’s which was replaced by the Queen’s Commitment Scholarship.”

Let’s talk about your scholarship journey. Winning all that money is not an easy task. It’s a lot of late nights and a lot of hand cramping with the writing. So, what was your biggest struggle when it came to applying to scholarships?

“I was lucky. I had a pretty easy time with school the first couple of months but I was not motivated to do anything. So, I put it off until I was really, really busy with school to do all my applications, manage my school work, and my extracurriculars. It definitely got easier as time went on because you get better at them, and I recycled a lot of mine!

Next, the bigger one would have been motivation. Staying motivated to keep applying because I got lots of emails that said, “Sorry we had a lot of great applications!”. After the first few, I was like “This is not worth it. I am not going to win. Why am I wasting my time?”. That was a big thing that GrantMe helped me with – staying accountable when I didn’t have an option. I was like, “I need to apply. I’m in this program. They’re going to be mad at me if I don’t!””

When applying to scholarships, scholarship burnout is very common! To curb this burnout, and set a plan to complete your scholarship applications, check out our video!

“What are your plans for the future?”

“I’ve got two potential big goals. Firstly, medical school – it’s an idea I’ve had for years. I’ve seen the impacts of inequitable access to healthcare. I am very passionate about making sure everyone has access. My mom suffered a car accident when I was really little, so I’d seen her grow up in chronic pain. I want to be able to help people in similar situations as her. 

The other thing I really love would be looking at research for – it is really specific – in the healthcare field from the ocean. I just love the ocean. I love coral fish. All of that, honestly! That is something that I’m very much looking forward to!”

Interested in meeting more GrantMe winners? Check out Mattie, winner of the Schulich Leader Award, worth $80,000!

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If you would like to unlock your scholarship potential with GrantMe, take our Scholarship Eligibility Quiz to find out how you can be a part of the GrantMe community!

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