Madelyn Doucette is a Currie Scholar
Westisle graduating student receives prestigious UNB scholarship
“They’re basically a family. There were people from years and years before who received the scholarship, explaining how Dr. Currie changed their lives.” Madelyn Doucette
Prince Edward Island’s 2017 recipient of the University of New Brunswick’s prestigious Currie Scholarship is already a big fan of the man in whose honour the award is named. The night before Madelyn Doucette interviewed for the scholarship, she attended a banquet at UNB in the company of past recipients of the award.
“They’re basically a family,” she observed.
“There were people from years and years before who received the scholarship, explaining how Dr. Currie changed their lives.” Doucette, who will graduate from Westisle Composite High School next week, has been awarded the $65,000 Currie Scholarship and the mentoring that comes with it. The mentoring actually started the night of the banquet.
“They gave us advice and told us to calm down and, basically, told us to just be ourselves in the interview.”
Leadership roles in her school and community as well as academic excellence helped the teenager earn the scholarship, the university reported. A student from each of the Atlantic provinces was awarded the scholarship.
Doucette lives in St. Louis with her mom, Monique Doucette and stepdad Wade Thibodeau. She writes a school column for this newspaper and was a member of the Westisle Wolverines Girls basketball team for two years. She volunteered at Camp Triumph one summer, being a mentor to children whose families are affected by chronic illness, disability or traumatic loss.
She also did a six-month exchange in Grade 11 at a school in Gaspé, Que.
Dr. Richard J. Currie started university at UNB as a Beaverbank Scholar and ended with an MBA from Harvard. He was UNB Chancellor from 2003 to 2013 and was named Chancellor Emeritus in 2014.
“He received a big scholarship when he was younger and it allowed him to get the education he wanted, so he wants to do the same for others. It’s really about bettering the community,” Doucette said in describing what the Currie Scholarship is all about.