Charlotte Armstrong of Charlottetown is an exceptional, yet humble, high school student competing for a major academic prize.
Charlotte, 17, is in the running for a Loran Award, valued at $100,000 over four years for undergraduate studies in Canada.
She is among the top 88 of more than 5,000 candidates, based on evidence of character, commitment to service in the community and leadership potential.
She heads to Toronto this week for the national selections where the Loran Scholars Foundation will grant 34 Loran Awards, each worth $100,000. If not selected as a Loran scholar, Charlotte will receive a $5,000 finalist award.
“I’m extremely honoured to have gotten this far and I’m very excited for the opportunity to go to the nationals and meet Canadians who have done extraordinary things,’’ she says.
“I’m just going to do the best I can and represent my province and myself.’’
Charlotte is drawn to offering her time and talents to volunteering at school and in the community.
She is the co-editor of the school newspaper at Charlottetown Rural High School. She has organized an arts education program for elementary school children, addressing a need for expanded arts programming in schools. She also enthusiastically volunteers at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Public Archives and Records Office.
“It is just something I feel I should be doing,’’ says Charlotte.
“I see myself as a very hard worker and a very honest worker. I will always work to the best of my ability…I will always do what is expected of me.’’
Provincial archivist Jill MacMicken-Wilson finds Charlotte inspiring.
She believes the Grade 12 student with a 95 per cent grade average and an incredible work ethic is a quite deserving candidate to be in the running for the prestigious Loran Award.
“She is a very impressive young woman…I don’t think we could say enough good about her,’’ says MacMicken-Wilson.
“We think the world of her.’’
MacMicken-Wilson notes Charlotte tackles what can often be rather tedious work at the public archives with enthusiasm and not a word of complaint.
“She has the patience and she has the thoroughness that we need in this type of work,’’ she says.
“I have absolute confidence that she will go wherever she wants to go.’’
Charlotte, who is fluently bilingual, is at the moment considering the pursuit of a career in either law or as a history teacher.
And Charlotte, who for enjoyment likes to cross country ski, walk her dog and read biographies and classics (she loves “The Scarlet Pimpernel”), would like to work on Prince Edward Island when she graduates from university.
“I am very connected to P.E.I.,’’ she says.
