A Carlton Comprehensive High School graduate has been awarded Paper Excellence’s first national Métis scholarship.
Jolynn Amyotte, who was Carlton’s 2021 valedictorian, said the scholarship will help her focus on classes rather than worrying about how to pay for them.
“It’s super important to me, especially because it’s a Métis scholarship,” she said. “That means a lot to me. I feel like I am a the beginning of something great and I hope that future students applying for this scholarship can look (back) on this and see what kind of image a person receiving this scholarship should portray.”
Amyotte hopes that being awarded the scholarship will influence other local Metis students to apply for it.
“I feel like there is so many scholarships out there that aren’t taken advantage of, so if this is publicized and more people know about it, it is super important.”
Amyotte will be studying Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan in the fall. She said that there were many reasons why she chose the field of study.
“I actually took a Grade 12 level Kinesiology class in Carlton and I just really enjoyed the subject of that class. I have always been interested in health, and I feel like this degree program will kind of open me up to a lot of different possibilities in the future,” she explained.
According to the release, Amyotte’s long-term goal is to improve overall access to and quality of care, as well as bring new ideas of what health looks like to her community.
“I feel like it will open up a lot of doors for me in the future, at least I am hoping,” Amyotte said.
Graham Kissack, Paper Excellence’s vice-president of environmental health and safety and corporate communications, congratulated Amyotte, and said the scholarship is the company’s way of giving back to the community.
“We’re pleased to be able to offer scholarships to Indigenous youth who live in the communities surrounding our mills,” Kissack said in a media release. “Paper Excellence understands the importance of being good neighbours and greatly values its relationships with Indigenous communities.”
Paper Excellence is headquartered in British Columbia, and operates seven mills and a large-scale cargo distribution centre that produces and ships more than 2.8-million tonnes of pulp and specialty, printing, writing and packaging papers.
