Caledon student among scholarship winners

A Caledon student is among the winners of the 2007 Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation Excellence Awards. The award recognizes university and college-bound students for their achievements in leadership, innovation, academic performance, and community service.

Rimpy Cheema, of Mayfield Secondary School, has been rewarded for her good citizenship, fresh ideas and academic excellence:

To maintain an average of more than 90% requires hard work, however, Cheema's efforts do not stop there. An active member of her Sikh community, Rimpy is involved in the Sikh heritage centre, through which she organized a summer camp for children. Wanting to increase the number of activities available for children in her community, Rimpy took on the task of getting permission from the center to start a children's camp, making registration forms, planning the activities and leading a group of campers. Rimpy is constantly looking for ways to improve life at a global and a local level.

Other examples include a 30-minute speech she wrote and delivered at York University on the importance of women's rights, or the skit she cowrote and performed in for Punjabi Idol, which raises money to sponsor children in underdeveloped countries. Rimpy also contributed significantly to her school's 30-hour famine, which raised more than $18,000 for hungry children throughout the world. Rimpy hopes to study medicine at university but she is also very interested in the arts, participating in a type of Indian dancing called Bhangra, submitting artwork to community art shows and creating sets for theatre productions.

Local award winners will receive a one-time $4,000 award. Local and regional awards are distributed in each province and territory based on their share of the Canadian population, while national awards are allocated to the most exceptional applicants across the country, regardless of provincial and territorial quotas.

"An investment in the education of these outstanding citizens is an investment in the future of our society," said Norman Riddell, executive director and CEO of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. "These young, and sometimes not so young, individuals have already demonstrated their ability to change the world around them - they know how to make a difference. The foundation is pleased to recognize their past successes, but above all is proud to help them reach their future goals."

The Foundation received some 9,600 applications from students across the country. They awarded 1,052 scholarships: 100 national, 241 provincial, and 711 local. Ontario is home to 396 laureates, 39 national winners, 89 provincial, and 268 local.