BC Transplant (BCT) has awarded four $1,500 scholarships to students who have showcased incredible creativity and success in their unique projects. Their dedication and passion to raising awareness about organ donation and transplant in their schools and communities is inspiring. A big thank you to everyone who applied for this scholarship as there were many strong applications from all across B.C.
We are excited to share that our winners for the 2023 scholarships are Jayla, Cassandra, Ashley and Montana!
Jayla has a direct connection to organ donation – her father received a liver transplant in 2021. As she has personally seen the power of organ donation, Jayla organized Green Shirt Day events at her school over the last two years. The events were successful, reaching more than 2,600 people each year, but Jayla wants to do even more.
“I wanted to bring light to these unpopular topics and create more opportunities to save lives. I believe this was accomplished and I look forward to continuing this project into my grade 12 year,” she says. “After this, I plan to pass the legacy on to other students to ensure organ donation is something we all know about and consider doing.”
Jayla’s personal experiences with organ donation and transplant are powerful. By sharing her passion and creativity with the community she has created long-lasting impact.
Cassandra has always been interested in the health sciences field so she is keenly aware of the importance of organ donation. This inspired her to do more research on organ donation and present it to the students and staff at her school.
Cassandra focused on addressing myths, while also bringing to light individual transplant recipient’s experiences with organ donation. She acknowledged a gap and decided to address it.
“Some might think that organ donation is an ‘adult topic’, but many young people like me are not as exposed to it and are also looking for information. This gave me motivation to reach as many people in my community as possible,” says Cassandra.
Cassandra’s passion and efforts were evident in her essay, presentation and social media posts. She plans to continue raising awareness by presenting to classes, upon request, as well as sharing in the school community and on social media. After high school, Cassandra hopes to go to medical school and become a pediatrician.
Ashley created a heartfelt video showcasing her efforts to raise awareness for organ donation amongst her peers. She launched a school-wide challenge to encourage students to register as organ donors and over 400 people participated in Green Shirt Day at her school. She also created a second video designed for social media that we will share on our BCT Instagram page.
For her Green Shirt Day campaign, Ashley put up posters, encouraged classes to learn more about Logan Boulet, created social media posts, in addition to the school-wide challenge. It was a successful project to honour Logan Boulet’s legacy and raise awareness for a new, but important, topic in her community.
Montana also has a personal connection to organ donation. In 2012, her father was an organ donor and gave five individuals a second chance at life. Montana and her family received a letter from one of the recipients and there were touched to see the life they had saved through their decision to move forward with organ donation.
(Montana and her father, Andrew)
As a part of her Capstone project, Montana conducted a two-week social media campaign on Facebook and Instagram to raise awareness of organ donation. She shared heartfelt posts about her father and the lives he saved with his gift of organ donation. Montana pledged to register 1000 people on B.C.’s Organ Donor Registry.
Montana was featured on CBC Kamloops, transplantNATION magazine and her local newspaper for her touching campaign. She also reached people internationally through her emotional social media posts.
