Kinsley Jura was one of 36 Loran scholarship recipients from more than 5,000 applicants from across Canada this year.
Jacquie Miller | February 23, 2020
Ottawa Grade 12 student Kinsley Jura was grilled at nearly a dozen interviews before winning a prestigious scholarship that gives her a choice of Canadian universities.
The Loran Scholars Foundation award is worth about $100,000 over the course of a four-year undergraduate degree.
What was the toughest question she was asked? Jura, a self-possessed woman with a winning grin, thinks a moment before citing a query sometimes posed in job interviews: What was your biggest failure?
It’s not that she has never failed, says Jura, who told her Loran interviewers about how she ran for student council co-president at St. Peter High School in Orléans last year and lost.
The question was difficult because she didn’t think about her experience in those terms. “I think I just have a positive outlook,” Jura says. “I’m basically an optimist. When something doesn’t work out, I try to look at it as a learning opportunity.”
That resilient, can-do that attitude undoubtedly helped Jura edge out a little more than 5,000 other applicants for one of 36 Loran scholarships given to Canadian students this year. Twelve recipients were from Ontario, and Jura was the only one from Ottawa.
Loran, a privately funded charity, was established 32 years ago to fill a gap in Canadian scholarships, which tended to be given to students with either exceptionally high grades or athletic prowess.
“Only a small proportion of overall financial aid was directed at those who show promise of the leadership and other talents that will make their communities better places both during and after their university careers,” the foundation website says. “To find Canada’s next generation of leaders, we must look beyond grades and rankings to find the promise of character.”
The Loran awards are based on a mix of academic achievement, extracurricular activity and leadership potential.
Jura has all three in spades.
She has done extensive volunteer work. She plays with children at a palliative care hospice. She volunteers at the nursery during services at Community Pentecostal Church. Last year she went on a mission to Thailand with youth from her church to teach English to impoverished children.
At school, she belongs to a club of older students who help make sure the kids entering St. Peter in Grade 7 feel welcome, offering tips on everything from how to make friends to time management. “I like sharing with students the fact that I only knew about five students when I got to this high school, but you can make friends easily!” Jura says. “You just have to put yourself out there.”
She helped organize a cultural food fair so students could share favourite dishes and traditions. She brought both Haitian patties, a tribute to her Haitian heritage — her parents immigrated to Canada from that country — and butter tarts, “my favourite Canadian dessert.”
Jura co-founded a school club that raises money for charities both locally and abroad. Participants delivered candy to a women’s shelter around Halloween, for instance, because they figured children there might not get out trick or treating, made sandwiches for the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter for the homeless and raised money for a school in Uganda.
Jura is no slouch academically, either, earning the highest average grades every year at her school.
She describes it as a “blessing” to have been successful in school and gives credit to the good teachers who helped her. “I’ve always been that kid,” she says, laughing. “I’ve always liked school. You know, that kid in Grade 2 who says, ‘Wait, the teacher didn’t assign any homework?!’ ”
Jura also loves music and theatre. She plays piano and has performed in school productions, sung in several choirs and played in school bands since Grade 4. She started with the flute, then in Grade 7 switched to the euphonium. “I was looking for something new, just for the challenge,” she explains.
She likes the warm sound of the instrument and its quiet, but essential role in the orchestra. “You might not notice it’s there, but you definitely notice if it’s not there.
“I was learning about what it was to be, maybe not the star of the show, but an important part of the team.”
After a neighbour asked Jura if she would teach her daughter to play piano, Jura started a side business giving lessons to neighbourhood children after school.
The Loran scholarship is run in conjunction with 25 Canadian universities. Jura says she has chosen McGill University because it has excellent bio-medical and science programs and because living in Montreal should help her maintain her French. She hopes to become a pediatrician.
The scholarship includes a living stipend as well as summer internships, including one abroad and one in another province.
It starts in September, when the scholars are to meet at Algonquin Park for a week of orientation. “I don’t know if there is canoeing,” she says. “I’ve only been in a canoe like, once in my life, but that would be fun!”
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