Feature Article April 10, 2002
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Major scholarship won by Ainsley Headby Jeff GreenLike many OAC students, Ainsley Head is looking forward to moving on to university. Unlike most other OAC students, however, Ainsley is no longer wondering how she is going to pay for it.She has been awarded one of 15 National Scholarships given out by the University of Toronto, which will pay her tuition for four years, and will also pay living expenses as well. For good measure, the scholarship comes with a $3,000 cash bonus.Ainsley lives in Kingston and attends Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI), but has roots in Central Frontenac. Her proud mother, Cheryl Matson, lives near Sharbot Lake, and Ainsley spent last summer working at The Rising Bun Bakery and Tea Room in the village. The National Scholarships from the University of Toronto are obviously much sought after. Jane Douglas of the Limestone District School Board said they are awarded to students who demonstrate superior academic performance, original and creative thought, and exceptional achievement in a broad context. The process of selecting the winners is long and involved. Along with transcripts and a note of recommendation from a teacher, applicants were asked to write their own letter of recommendation, and were given an assignment. They were asked to produce some kind of a work that related to five touchstone words: tip, aerial, bored, spell, and express. Ainsley wrote a short play for the assignment. For the next stage of the competition, Ainsley sent in a portfolio of creative writing, after taking an OAC writing course last fall. One of the pieces included in that portfolio is the Shakespearean Sonnet reprinted here. The sonnet is also being published later this Spring by the Poetry Institute of Canada. The final stage of the competition took place over a four-day period in Toronto in February. At that time the field was down to 25 students from across Canada, and "we were treated really well, put up in a nice hotel, and brought to the Royal Ontario Museum one night, and to a party another night," Ainsley told The News. "But," she adds "the interviews were really hard. The first one was with a professor from the university, who asked me about my writing, and about other things, for two and a half hours. "The second one was even harder. It was a committee interview, and there were four people asking all sorts of questions. They asked my opinion about current events - events which I don't know very well. At the end, I thought I wasn't going to get the scholarship after all." Ainsley needn't have worried. Her guidance counsellor at KCVI, Linda Huffman describes her as someone who is "really quite exceptional in terms of her abilities. She is also really involved. I knew she would be a very strong candidate."Ainsley, for her part, had nothing but praise for KCVI, saying it is a "really accepting school, people are allowed to be themselves. I've never been treated as a drama geek while I've been there." Drama has been a major part of Ainsley's life for years, and she recently won an Acting Award for Excellence at the local Sears Drama Festival. She also has founded a theatre company with some of her friends. Linda Huffman sums it up by describing the other KCVI students reactions to the scholarship. "No one here is feeling jealous. She's really highly regarded. She earned this and she deserves it, for many reasons."
