By Kyle Reid
O’Donel High student Emily Garlie has a passion for helping others realize their potential.
She’s hoping to pursue that passion through her post-secondary studies.
Garlie is a recipient of the 2018 RBC Award. The award provides high school students in their graduating year with a $1,000 bursary to help offset some of the costs of post-secondary education. The bursary is available to students who are deeply committed to their community, academics and who exhibit a desire to continue their education to help realize future career goals.
Emily Garlie outside her soon to be Alma Mater.
Garlie was nominated for the award by the O’Donel guidance counsellor Laura Halley, who spoke highly of Garlie’s potential in the award nomination letter.
“She is a humanitarian, a volunteer, a mentor,” Halley wrote. “This money would benefit her greatly in her studies. I have no doubt that Emily is bound for great things.”
Next fall, Garlie plans on attending Memorial University where she will pursue her Bachelor of Science degree alongside a Bachelor of Secondary Education degree.
“I’d like to be a French immersion math teacher,” said Garlie, who noted she is hoping to teach at the junior high level.
And there aren’t many more deserving of the bursary than Mount Pearl’s 2018 Female Youth of the Year. Garlie’s extracurricular resume is impressive. The O’Donel High student volunteers with the school’s Patriot’s Mentors Program and is a standing member of the school’s Welcome Team, Patriot Paws and the Yearbook Club.
“Most of the teams I can be involved in, I try my best to be involved in,” noted Garlie, who also sports a 95 per cent average in school and sits on the O’Donel High honour roll.
Outside of school, Garlie serves as the coach and general team coordinator with the Mount Pearl Youth Action team. Last summer she volunteered as a cultural ambassador at The Rooms, has volunteered with The Gathering Place and volunteers with the Mount Pearl Association for the Arts.
While a lengthy list of extracurricular activities may be daunting for some, for Garlie, her community involvement is anything but a chore.
“It’s not that difficult, I enjoy it so I’m definitely really passionate about local and global issues,” said Garlie. “There’s definitely people in the world who aren’t as fortunate as we are…anytime I can help out I love to.”
She wants to help nurture that passion for helping others in her future studies.
"As a student entering post secondary, the RBC Award and the $1,000 bursary will significantly help with the financial pressures many new university students face. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a teacher,” said Garlie. “I would come home and teach my dolls the lessons I learned in school that day. I have always been a dedicated student interested in volunteering, helping others and changing the world around me; as a teacher I would like to inspire others and help youth grow into global citizens. Going through university without having to worry about financial burdens will help me to score the highest, get engaged and most of all, learn the skills required to become the best teacher influence I can be for generations to come… (The bursary) will help me become the teacher that I want to be to help inspire students to take on these initiatives and do what I’m doing now.”
