Lethbridge high school senior makes history on road to national award

After an extensive selection process, a Grade 12 Winston Churchill High School student from Lethbridge, Alta., has found himself amongst the top 1.9 per cent of applicants for a prestigious nationwide award.

The Loran Scholars Foundation has been running its program in Canada for the last 34 years and received just shy of 4,800 applications for the 2023 cycle.

There are now 90 finalists heading into the final selection process.

“We started off selecting only four and now we have 36 scholars coming into our community every year,” explained CEO Meghan Moore.

Each Loran Award is valued at around $100,000 over four years of undergraduate studies. The organization gives out approximately $4 million to its applicants annually. Finalists who aren’t selected as a scholar receive $5,000.

The scholarship looks beyond academic achievement when choosing its recipients.

“I think the thing that makes Loran unique is that our scholars are all very unique themselves, and so they all have their own pursuits and interests,” Moore said.

Steven Yang, who has dreams of studying software engineering, said he applied at the suggestion of a teacher and was amazed at his progression.

Moore said Yang the first national finalist WCHS has ever had.

“The thing that stuck out to me (was) their emphasis that was put on connections and mentorship,” Yang explained.

“I think that’s a part that’s overlooked in Loran. People see the dollar amount, but they don’t see the fine details.”

One of Yang’s contributions to the community that helped fuel is progress include the co-creation of cigarette butt receptacles targeting the downtown core at age 15, a project that earned him a local grant of $3,000.

WCHS principal Tracy Wong knew Yang had tremendous care in his heart from the get-go.

“When he first entered Winston Churchill High School, we knew that he was committed to volunteer work and committed to caring for the community,” Wong said.

Yang also takes part in the school’s Interact club, leadership class and is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program. He also recently founded a school math club that quickly grew in popularity.

“His goal is to get students engaging in math with one another in a really fun atmosphere,” Wong explained. “We have over 70 students registered in math club, which is the largest club here at Churchill.”

“We’re founded on the principals of inclusivity, connections, and fun,” Yang added.

Yang will be visiting Toronto at the end of February to go through in-person interviews and meet his peers.