A student from Beaverlodge and a student from Sexsmith were this year's winners of the 2002 Peace Wapiti Foundation scholarships.

Cody Creelman who graduated this year from Beaverlodge Regional High and who plans to study veterinary medicine, and Patricia Airns, a graduate of Sexsmith Secondary School who is studying education were each awarded $1000 scholarships.

The Peace Wapiti Foundation awards two scholarships each year to graduates of Peace Wapiti schools. Priority is given to students entering the fields of education, forestry, agriculture, oil and healthcare who intend to seek employment in the Peace Country following graduation.

Johan Bolton, a 2002 graduate of Ridgevalley School, received a 2002-03 Millennium Scholarship from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. He was selected from more than 7,000 applications on the basis of academic achievement, community service, leadership, and interest in innovation. His local excellence award included $4,000. Johan will be starting the pre-med in January 2003.

Another first-year, pre-med student, Candace Yanishewski, was one of two Alberta high school graduates to receive a Terry Fox post-secondary school scholarship this year. The scholarship amounts to $6,000 a year for four years. Candace, a cross-country runner who now competes with the Grande Prairie Regional College team, graduated in 2002 from Savanna School.

Kellan Eckstrom, who graduated in 2002 from Sexsmith Secondary, won a $500 scholarship from the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) towards his agricultural studies at Grande Prairie Regional College. The annual award is given to an agricultural student at either GPRC or Fairview College.

Ten of the 13 graduates of Savanna School this year qualified for all or part of the Rutherford Scholarship that demands at least an 80 per cent average. Eleven of the 13 graduates are now pursuing post-secondary studies. 

While the statistics may be amazing to parents of students from larger schools, it's about average for Savanna's graduating class.

"It's fairly typical," says Principal Debra Stone. "We usually have about 70 per cent receive Rutherfords and about 80 per cent who go on to post-secondary schools." This is from a school with fewer than 150 students in grades K-12.

Stone attributes the academic accomplishments to the rural nature of the school: small class sizes, a course offering limited primarily to academics, and parents who promote education as a means to success.