The accomplished debater, Whang\u0101rei District Council Youth Advisory Group member and school board of trustees student representative was surprised to be selected.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at this sort of programme and you\u2019re immediately like \u2018these kids are the top students in the country\u2019 … I didn\u2019t really expect much,\u201d Jann\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n
However, she made it through each step of a layered selection process involving a tough interview with United World College alumni, a meeting with a psychologist, an interview with United World Colleges (UWC) Aotearoa New Zealand National Committee chairwoman Lucy Telfar Barnard, and a group selection day in Auckland with the other remaining candidates.<\/p>\n
She will work towards the International Baccalaureate Diploma, a globally recognised school-leaving certificate. <\/p>\n
Her plans are to study biomedical engineering, combining her interests in maths, physics and medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very much a STEM-minded person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But Jann\u00e9\u2019s career path was about making an \u201cimportant difference to the lives of so many people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just what I want to be able to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Year 13 Tauraroa Area School student Jann\u00e9 Loots is off to Canada in August after receiving a full scholarship to United World College of the Pacific on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n
Jann\u00e9 hoped her success would inspire other students to apply for the scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my biggest dream is to be able to go and pave the way for others or show kids that it is possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what your background is or where you come from or what school you go to or anything like that. If you work really, really hard you can go get those things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The most daunting part for Jann\u00e9 may be spending two years away from home, with two weeks the longest she has been apart from her family so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what I\u2019ve been working for. I\u2019d be an absolute like silly goose to say no just because I\u2019m scared. Because when things scare you that\u2019s when you grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Jann\u00e9, originally from South Africa, was excited about the prospect of a white Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019d be pretty incredible. Like I don\u2019t know how many Kiwi South African kids get to say at the age of like 18 and 19 that they\u2019ve had like two white Christmases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jann\u00e9 said her family and friends have supported everything she has done.<\/p>\n
She has lost count of how many times her parents drove her to late-night meetings or training.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate in the fact that my parents have always supported me and never made me like doubt my own abilities. They\u2019ve always told me if I set my mind to things like I\u2019ll get it done and I\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UWC scholarships are offered by the Shelby Davis Foundation annually. Applications for next year are now open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The accomplished debater, Whang\u0101rei District Council Youth Advisory Group member and school board of trustees student representative was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33520,17,2682,25259,33516,4288,33518,33514,31706,33519,11855,33517,4418,31713,3586,3585,23812,33515,33513,2353,1645],"class_list":["post-87204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-abroad","tag-canada","tag-college","tag-four","tag-high","tag-in","tag-nationwide","tag-northland","tag-on","tag-prestigious","tag-scholarship","tag-school","tag-student","tag-teens","tag-the","tag-to","tag-top","tag-united","tag-up","tag-wins","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}