McCall Scholarships: April Selkirk vows to return to Huron County
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
When McCall Scholarship recipient April Selkirk left Huron County to lay the foundation for a career in medicine at the University of Western Ontario, she made sure to pack a long-term plan to return home someday with the skills and abilities to improve her community in a big way.
As a Goderich District Collegiate Institute (GDCI) graduate and United Way volunteer with years of enthusiastic community involvement under her belt, Selkirk was a natural McCall Scholarship candidate, but she never saw the accolades coming. “I spend so much of my time volunteering, but I never expected any recognition from it!” Selkirk told The Citizen with excitement.
She’s already thinking of how she can use this well-earned windfall to continue helping others. “When I got the McCall Scholarship, it wasn’t only that I was being recognized - with their funding, they are helping me to continue volunteering,” she pointed out. “The financial help means that I don’t have to juggle multiple jobs alongside my education. It means I’ll still be able to be there for my community.”
For Selkirk, the scholarship is about more than money - it’s making her loftiest goal feel a whole lot more possible. “This scholarship has given me a lot of confidence to pursue my dream - to be a physician,” she confided in The Citizen.
That dream begins at Western, where Selkirk will study General Science with the hope of eventually specializing in medical sciences or neurology. “It’s a long road to become a physician, but my end goal is to come back to Huron County and be a family doctor and give back to my community,” she explained.
Selkirk’s desire to return home is rooted in the community that shaped her. “In Goderich, I’ve grown up with a strong support system around me, because the community is a lot smaller - my favourite aspect of high school in Huron County is probably how close-knit the schools and community are,” she pointed out. “You get really personal relationships with all the students in your school as well as teachers.”
Moving to London will bring a very different experience. Selkirk expects the increased independence will take some getting used to, but she’s feeling up to the challenge. “Going to university, I’m definitely learning how to be independent, which I think is a little bit of a road that everyone goes through in their first year,” she said. “Especially coming from a rural place.”
While she’ll be away from Huron County for quite some time, Selkirk has no intention of leaving its lessons behind. As she dives headlong into a challenging post-secondary education, she’s reminding herself to stay involved, make connections and thrive, whatever the situation may be. “In post-secondary education, you find yourself in a lot of different rooms that maybe you don’t feel like you fit in, or maybe, to be honest, you feel like you’re the dumbest person in the room,” she pointed out. “But that’s not really the case at all. Recognizing that you are in that room and you have a reason to be in that room is an important part of the experience. Don’t make yourself small because you think you don’t deserve to be in those rooms.”