Vincent Massey teen wins DS Adventure scholarship

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This article was published 23/01/2012 (5242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Auriat was ecstatic when she found out she was the 2012 recipient of the DS Adventure Scholarship.

“There was some jumping up and down, there was a little bit of crying … I still can’t wipe the smile off my face,” said Auriat, a Grade 11 student at Vincent Massey High School.

As the scholarship winner, Auriat will spend three weeks this summer in Germany where she will study the language.

The scholarship was established in 2008 by former Brandonite Deborah Grant and her husband Srdjan (Serge) Tanjga. Each year, the couple provides one student from Brandon the opportunity to study a foreign language of their choosing, and one student from Belgrade, Serbia (where Serge is from) the opportunity to study English in Canada or the U.S.

“We’ve been very fortunate in the past that we’ve had, and people have been very generous with us, helping us along the way,” Grant said in an interview from her home in New York City.

“When we were getting married, instead of doing a typical wedding registry, we thought doing this type of scholarship would be a way to give back to young people who may be in situations that we were in at one point.”

Grant was able to go abroad on an exchange program in university, which she said helped change her path.

“Now I’ve been fortunate and travelled to over 60 countries,” she said.

The couple received applications from several Grade 11 students from all three of Brandon’s high schools.

Canadian students must submit two essays — one describing an experience or person that has had a big impact on their lives and the second is to discuss what language they want to study and why.

“We had a number of candidates who had very strong essays, but Olivia’s really spoke to us,” Grant said.

Auriat wrote about how being a lower left arm amputee has affected her life.

“I was born without my left arm from two inches below the elbow,” she said. “It’s something that has changed my life completely.”

In her second essay, Auriat described her passion to learn more about Germany.

“I’ve always been really fascinated by Germany,” she said. “It’s such an interesting place and they have so much history.”

Grant said they look at a candidate’s grades and extra-curricular activities.

“We want to see someone who has demonstrated across a number of different things that they are an adventure-seeking type of person,” Grant said. “Someone that is really driven in some way and will be able to use this as a stepping stone to have other adventures as they continue along their path.”

This is the fourth adventure scholarship. Previous recipients travelled to China, Japan and Russia. More information on the DS Adventure Scholarship can be found at dsadventurescholarship.com.

» jaustin@brandonsun.com