Queen Charlotte Secondary grade 12 student Quinlan Fennell has won this year’s Fernandez Earle Scholarship to Hawaii Pacific University. A very excited Mr. Fennell got the news Friday morning, through a phone call to the school from four members of the scholarship foundation. “They said, ‘pack your bags for Hawaii’,” he said. “I did some whooping and hollering… It feels like I won the lottery.” The Fernandez Earle Scholarship is worth about $120,000 and covers four years’ worth of tuition, accommodation and travel between Haida Gwaii and Hawaii. “It is an amazing program offered by some very generous people,” Mr. Fennell said. The scholarship foundation members were on Haida Gwaii this week and interviewed the six students who applied for this year’s scholarship on Thursday. They were scheduled to announce the scholarship winner at a fundraising event Thursday night in Skidegate, but told the students they needed a bit more time to make up their minds. “They said it was a really hard decision because all the candidates were so hard working and very well qualified,” Mr. Fennell said. The Port Clements resident will be studying nursing at Hawaii Pacific University, and plans to return to Haida Gwaii and work as a nurse here after he graduates. He said he first became interested in nursing as a career through his mother, who works as a community nurse in Port. “It’s a really versatile job, you can do many things,” he said. “It allows you to give back instead of taking, and it’s also a job that’s in demand.” Mr. Fennell has never been outside of Canada but has learned how to surf at North Beach and is looking forward to trying out his skills in a warmer part of the Pacific. He credited his parents for teaching him about hard work and disciplined living, the town of Port for giving him opportunities to volunteer and get involved in the community, and all the teachers and staff at Queen Charlotte Secondary. “Particularly Mr. Q who taught me most of my senior sciences, and Mr. May for being incredibly helpful and supportive,” he said. “All the teachers at QCSS work really hard to make sure students succeed.”
