Scholarship Essay Entry – Brianne L.

I did not realize I was a dreamer until my best friend from high school commented on as she put it ‘another Brianne endeavour, that only [I] could dream up.’ Being the practical person that I am, nearly took this as an insult. “I do not dream up things,” I thought. I see a need or a solution to a problem and I try to fill gaps.  

The specific endeavour that I was working on at that point in time was planning a spring skating clinic in Iqaluit, Nunavut. I still do not think of this as being a dream. It was an idea. But an idea that involved numerous phone calls to people I did not know to try and even find out if their was a skating club up there. Phone calls to determine if there were any supplies. And more phone calls trying to receive donations of supplies that I could pack-up there with me. Well, after 3 months of planning the clinic went off without a hitch. The girls were exposed to some hard-core figure skating training, and I was allowed the opportunity to grow as a figure skating coach and aboriginal relations person.

This past summer I worked for Nature Alberta out at Pigeon Lake on a lake education project called the ‘Living by Water Project.’ It was while I was at the lake talking to residents, taking my hour-long prescribed lunch breaks, and driving from summer village to summer village, that I realized there are few activities for the permanent First Nations kids around the lake. I am now not dreaming about a recreational program for the kids that I constantly saw hitch-hiking and wandering toward the ice cream stand. I am taking inventory of the assets around the lake available to these kids. I am creating a proposal to many of the influential residents living around the lake of how funding a program can drastically lower the vandalism rate, of which accounts for almost the entire crime rate in one of the summer villages. I am familiar with programs offered through the provincial government and I am currently sending e-mails and making more phone calls so as to most effectively and efficiently work with the reserve and province in creating (or at least enhancing) a summer recreational program for the Pigeon Lake Reserve.

I do not anticipate creating massive change in a short-time, but I aim to create an impact upon at least one person wherever I go. Coming from a small town I know that it only takes one person to initiate change or instill hope. And it will be through one community at at time, that the world will become an understanding and satisfying place to live. I do not dream about such things. I merely implement well-thought out ideas.