‘Can’t believe it!’: Lethbridge student beats out thousands to win $70K scholarship

Contributing to her community has always been on Hayat Makwik’s agenda. Now, it’s helped her land up to $70,000 in scholarship funds.

The Grade 12 student from Chinook High School in Lethbridge, Alta., told Global News she’s still in disbelief she was selected as one of only 20 students across Canada to be awarded a TD Scholarship for Community Leadership.

Only two students from Alberta made the cut, with around 2,700 hopefuls submitting applications.

The organization provides the students with $10,000 toward tuition every year and a stipend of $7,500 for up to four years. They also provide summer job opportunities to recipients.

“It just passes over me in waves … because I just can’t believe it,” she said.

When in Grade 11, she wrote and performed a speech about Sudan’s road to democracy with the Odd Fellows, winning a trip to New York, N.Y.

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She has volunteered extensively with Big Brothers Big Sisters and around the local community.

Hayat also played an essential role in getting her school’s Culture Club up and running.

“I always grew up being one of the few minority students in the class, so when I got (to Chinook) I was kind of like ‘OK, what can we do to combat this? Because surely I can’t be the only one feeling this way,'” she explained.

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“The goal of the club is to advocate for any issues or anything that they wanted to talk about going on back home,” she said. “It was a way for students and teachers alike to come together, celebrate, talk about their cultures. You know, any differences they want to share.”

She spent time calling local businesses for support, and helped run events for Black History Month and Indigenous awareness.

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As part of her scholarship application, she had to write two papers. In one, she shared some of her family history.

“I wrote an essay about how I’m the daughter of a first-generation Sudanese immigrant family,” she said. “I’ll be the first one in my family to go to university, and how I want to create that legacy for me and my future family moving forward.”

Makwik attributed her commitment to community work to her father.

“He’s been a part of the Red Cross for over a decade now, and he’s just been my motivation and my light.”

Jane Thompson, executive director for the TD Scholarships for Community Leadership, said they look for qualities of those wanting to make a difference.

“These are students who see a problem, and they think: ‘I am the person who’s going to step up,'” Thompson said.

“She has made us better. She has made us more aware, she has made us look at issues in different ways,” added Chinook’s principal Bill Forster.

“I would say that there’s very few students that have had the impact on our school, and the community, that Hayat has.”

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“We’re going to miss her when she goes, for sure.”

Hayat plans to attend the University of Lethbridge in the fall and is considering medical school down the road.