Here’s a story about the recipient of  the 2014 McEuen Scholarship, Jacob Zayshley.

Zayshley earns scholarship
Vernon Morning Star
December 28, 2014
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Congratulations go out to Jacob Zayshley, whose family could not be more proud.

​“Ten years ago, while battling cancer, we could not have fathomed the heights you were to reach,” said his family: father Randy, mother Erin, sister Versailles and grandmother Iris Shewchuk.

Zayshley is a proud graduate of Vernon secondary school. He was honoured to address his graduating class in June as valedictorian and was recently awarded the Governor General’s Academic Medal, for outstanding academic excellence.

Most notably, the jewel in his crown of achievements is adding the 40th Anniversary McEuen Scholar to his list of accolades. He said he is both humbled by and grateful for such an honour. The scholarship is annually awarded to one student from across the country for a fully funded undergraduate degree from the University of St Andrews on the North Sea of Scotland.

St Andrews is the birthplace of golf and its university is more than 600 years old. In the photo, Jacob wears the crimson gown traditionally worn at formal occasions ranging from high table dinners in the halls of residence to Sunday chapel and pier walks.

Zayshley is studying towards a joint honours degree in Russian and international relations.
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“Our family would like to personally thank his teachers and the dedicated staff at VSS, the gifted doctors at BC Children’s Hospital, The McEuen Foundation and the community of Vernon for helping a young man achieve his dreams.”

Here’s a story about the 2013 recipient of the McEuen Scholarship, Julia Sawatzky.

Alberta dancer gets prestigious scholarship in U.K.
CBC News Calgary
May 10, 2013
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A student at the school of Alberta Ballet is “spinning” after receiving a huge scholarship to a prestigious school in the U.K. — but it’s not for dancing.
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Julia Sawatzky is the first Albertan to receive the McEuen Scholarship at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, which has only been given to one Canadian a year since 1974.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-dancer-gets-prestigious-scholarship-in-u-k-1.1408449

Revive and Grow strong was mentioned in the summer 2012 edition of the Concordia University Magazine. The book is available at Amazon.
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​https://issuu.com/span/docs/conu_mag_summer2010/2

Here’s a story about the 2012 recipient of the McEuen Scholarship, Emma Archibald.

Bedford student wins prestigious scholarship
Herald News
May 23, 2012

Possibly no dad in Nova Scotia is more excited about visiting his daughter at university than Al Archibald.
Emma Archibald, a graduating student at Charles P. Allen High School in Bedford, has won the McEuen Foundation scholarship and will now attend the University of St.Andrews in Scotland, the school where Kate Middleton and Prince William met while undergraduates.
The scholarship, worth $200,000 over four years, covers tuition and accommodations.
St. Andrews will celebrate its 600th anniversary next year, and even more relevant to Emma’s father, a fanatical golfer, it is just down the road from the Old Course, the most famous golf course in the world.
“On a scale of one to 10? About a 12,” Al Archibald judged his excitement level.
“My standing joke to Emma is she’ll be there, in her room, and one of her girlfriends will come in and say ‘Who’s that old guy in the corner?’ And she’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s my dad, he’s just waiting for his tee time.’”
Emma had set her sights on attending Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., after high school, until a family vacation last year to England and France. After one day in London, she told her mother she wanted to attend university in the U.K.
“It was just such a cool environment,” Emma said. “We went to Paris, too, and Paris felt like somewhere you’d visit, but London felt like somewhere you’d stay.
“It looked like cities around here, but with a different culture, different food and all the shops. I just liked the atmosphere.
“We stayed with my dad’s boss, and his wife said ‘Well, actually, there’s a school in Scotland called St. Andrews.’ I went home, I Googled it, spent all summer researching it and decided I was going to try to go to St. Andrews.”
Fewer than 10 per cent of applicants to St. Andrews are admitted and her parents told her it would be too expensive even if she did get in. But then the family learned about the McEuen Foundation, which awards one scholarship each year to a Canadian student.
Emma wrote a 500-word essay on why she wanted to go and compiled a resume of her varied extracurricular activities, along with two reference letters. Soon after she was accepted into the university, she learned she’d made it to the foundation’s shortlist of six people for the scholarship and would fly to Ottawa to be interviewed.
“I wasn’t nervous for the interview, I was excited, because I thought I had a better chance of being able to talk my way in, I guess. But after, I got really nervous and I barely got to the elevator before I started crying,” she said.
“I guess the hardest question was ‘Why do you want to go?’ They asked me about my activities, and because I’m a twin they wanted to know how I’d feel going away from my twin.”
Emma also discussed with the committee the extended essay she completed as part of her International Baccalaureate diploma, which was on the philosophy of diagnosing mental disorders. The next day, she got a phone call telling her she was this year’s McEuen winner.
“They don’t really put a value on it, they just say it covers all tuition and accommodation, but there’s a student calculator on the St. Andrews website and it’s about $200,000 for the four years,” she said.
“The same amount as our house. That’s what I told the selection committee when they asked why I wanted the scholarship. I was like, ‘Well, I really want to go but it costs the same amount as my house and my parents aren’t ready to sell the house.’”
John Aylen, a member of the scholarship selection committee, said all the kids who were short-listed have “ridiculously” good marks and that the process is extremely competitive.
“We’re looking to provide these kids with a life-changing experience and they have to be up to it, academically and socially,” he said. “It takes some maturity at that age to incorporate yourself into a new community, a new country.”
Emma didn’t know that Prince William had attended St.Andrews when she began the application process, but she has been asked several times if she hopes to land her own prince.
“Apparently there’s some stat that 90 per cent of St. Andrews graduates marry someone they met there,” she said. “I didn’t know any of this stuff when I was first applying, I didn’t know about Will and Kate until after I decided I wanted to go there. My sister is more into that kind of stuff.”

More: http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/99210-bedford-student-wins-prestigious-scholarship

Here’s a story about the 2009 recipient of the McEuen Scholarship.
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Student gets scholarship to St. Andrews
NorthCumberlandToday.com

June 12, 2009
CENTRETON — Some kids choose the university they want at a relatively young age, and focus their energies on getting there.

Kids, for example, like Centreton resident Brendan Macdonald.

Some kids decide they want to attend their parents’ alma mater.

Again — Brendan Macdonald.

Some kids get complete four-year scholarships to those universities.
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Yes, Brendan Macdonald. The Cobourg District Collegiate Institute East International Baccalaureate program graduate has won the prestigious McEuen Scholarship to the University of St. Andrew’s in Fife, Scotland.