Saving the bears, helping youth shake off negative stereotypes, demonstrating leadership in the community—these selfless acts deserve a $70,000 scholarship, says TD Canada Trust.

And that's exactly the way it went down in Toronto May 4-6, when Merritt Secondary School student Jessica Janzen was handed a scholarship on behalf of Canada's second largest bank.

"The whole panel of judges—we were really impressed, I think, with how she took the situation in her own hometown and found ways of making positive change," says executive director of TD Scholarships for Community Leadership Jane Thompson.

"And a lot of what we're looking for, the sort of first level of this, is students who figure out they can actually make a difference themselves. But the next thing, which somebody like Jessica shows us, is the kind of person who goes on to say … 'I can help other people learn how to make a difference,' and that's what really struck us, I think, about her is that she just has that tremendous heart, combined with a real ability to organize and get things done—and that's a pretty fantastic combination."

Whether it was leading her peers through the SmartStep program, which is aimed at giving youth opportunities to volunteer in the community and help build a positive reputation, or volunteering with Ducks Unlimited, 18-year-old Janzen has been finding ways to better Merritt and its people.
Residents may remember last fall that Janzen and classmate Suman Lali began a campaign to save the bears by removing bear attractants from residents' homes.

"Jessica found a way to combine her love of sport and a desire to give back to the community by participating in Smart Step Youth Association," said TD Bank Group in a statement. "She recruited and trained youth to run a supervised summer sports program for kids, launched a 'Paint Our City Clean' event to remove graffiti, and raised funds for a local women's shelter. When local conservation officers were forced to shoot a number of black bears that were feeding on backyard fruit trees, Jessica organized students to harvest the fruit from homeowners' yards. The edible fruit was donated to the food bank and the rest was composted."

"The main focus of it, I guess, was for community leadership and participation," says Janzen of the criteria for the scholarship, noting that you don't have to be "crazy genius" to win the scholarship. "You also had to submit sports you were involved in, your transcripts, and stuff you do in school, but the main focus was community involvement." She figures her involvement with Smart Step was the most significant factor in her winning the scholarship. She has served in various roles with the grass-roots group, including as director. The group's founder, Nicholas Kang, a former Merritt Centennial, initially told Janzen about the TD scholarship.

Janzen—a straight-A student, student council member, and part of the yearbook committee—was singled out along with 20 other recipients of the award, amongst 3200 applicants nationwide.

"It's open to students in their last year of high school or CEGEP in Quebec … this year we interviewed 70 finalists, and from that group we choose the 20 recipients," says Thompson. The scholarship is valid for four years and will cover $10,000 worth of tuition each year as well as $7,500 a year for living expenses.

Janzen has already decided the beginning of her post-secondary future. She will attend the University of Victoria this September.

"I am going into sciences," says Janzen. "And then also, in the summers they provide you with summer employment, if you choose to take them up on it.

"I am not 100 per cent sure yet exactly what I want to do; I want to go into … life sciences, like biology, and then hopefully do some business classes also…." She thinks maybe something combining sports and science may be her eventual choice.

"I know that it's a bit smaller than the UBC campus in Vancouver, so I guess coming from small town Merritt, I don't want go to a really big university first—I could transfer—and also because I know the rugby there is good," says Janzen of why she chose UVic.

She says she would like to continue playing rugby at UVic; she currently plays as an inside centre for the MSS Panthers rugby team, which is currently in the provincial championships.

But don't expect Janzen to totally disappear from Merritt quite yet; she will once again help out with Smart Step as a director this summer, the busiest time for the group.