AFGC 2020 Scholarship Recipients

I graduated from Abbotsford Christian Secondary School in June 2020.

I am planning on attending Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops this fall. Here, I will be taking the “Early Childhood Education” program, with a specialization in special needs care.

I am choosing to take this program because of my passion for working with children. My goal is to become a preschool teacher and possibly opening my own preschool that provides a safe learning space for all children.

I am hoping to accomplish this goal with the education received at Thompson Rivers University.

Thank you, Abbotsford Fish and Game Club, for your generous contribution.

My name is Sophia Hodges, and I have been a member of the AFGC for about 10 years now.

When I was younger, my dad and I came to the range often as a way to spend time together. He was often busy with his job, and I was unfortunately unable to see him as much as I would have liked. The range gave us something new to do together and helped me build my marksmanship under my dad’s mentoring.

This September, I will be entering the Bachelor of Arts program at UFV. I hope to major in psychology and one day be a psychologist with my own practice. As well as working hard to achieve my goals in my schooling, I will be teaching dance and continuing to further my skills as an artist.

I am so grateful for the opportunities that this scholarship and the Abbotsford Fish and Game Club has given me, and I am excited to see how my future will unfold with the help of this bursary.

Over the past two years, adapting to the student-athlete life at a varsity level has not been easy. There were many hardships faced due to conflicting schedules and long days consisting of school in between early morning and late night rugby trainings.

The AFGC scholarship helped me immensely through these last two years by providing me with financial aid while I faced significant academic and athletic challenges. Meeting the requirements for this scholarship every year is very important to me as I consider the AFGC a part of me, so to make my parents and the AFGC family proud, I have pushed myself to remain in good academic standing despite these trying times.

No matter how hard it was to stay focused on the end goal, I allowed the support of my family and AFGC to motivate me to keep pushing and working hard. I have the AFGC family to thank for being one of the main motivating factors on the road to my Social Work degree.

I am beyond excited to see what this next year holds for me and I hope to continue representing AFGC as best as I can here at UVic.

My second year of university attending UBC Vancouver was both awesome and troublesome. I was able to take more courses tailored to my degree and interests, and managed to exceed in a few of them while others outside my field were challenging but never the less interesting.

Second semester started off great and then obviously took a turn for the worse with the emergence and dangers of COVID-19 arising quickly. Classes were all moved online where each professor would decide their desired format for the remaining lectures and exams.

I found it very difficult to learn online, but persisted with a set goal of the average I needed to obtain not only for the future of my studies, but also in order to renew the AFGC Scholarship.

My name is Elisabeth Klassen, and I am going into second year in a Bachelor of Software Engineering Program at the University of Victoria. I have been a member of the Abbotsford Fish and Game Club for seven years.

I received the scholarship last year, for my first year at UVic, and it was exceedingly helpful for me. Engineering is a complex discipline with a lot of intensive requirements and many classes. The funds provided helped me to enter such a program and afford the books and supplies needed for a course with so many classes. Engineering often requires specialized tools and equipment, which these funds also helped me buy without difficulty. Furthermore, the funds allowed me to be certain that I be able to afford my education without worry, and to be sure that I would not have to also hold a job while attending classes, allowing me more time to focus on my classes and get better grades.

The time I had to focus on my classes no doubt contributed to the grades I received, which in turn, allowed me to get a co-op job as a software developer at a startup company in Victoria, an experience which is uncommon among first-year students. This job is helping me gain experience in my field and develop my learning beyond what I would gain in an ordinary classroom. I can thank AFGC for the funding that allowed me to maintain my focus on my studies and get this job that is contributing to my education.

My experience at UVic has been very positive, despite the challenges of university. Adapting to a new situation is always difficult and learning to live on my own was complicated. I had to devote myself to my studies while also finding time to take care of my needs and explore the city I was now living in. While it took some adapting, I was able to find a schedule that worked well for me, and was able to persevere through the difficulties to achieve the standards I had set for myself – and those that the Abbotsford Fish and Game Club sets for its scholarship applicants.

I learned many new things at university this year – not only academic, although I learned plenty about that, but also about how to work effectively, how to schedule time, and how to study even more efficiently than I had before. The learning curve associated with university helped me discover how to react to those challenges more effectively, and I believe I have become a better student because of it. I am looking forward to taking these new skills into second year, and discovering and learning additional skills in my future at university.

I would like to thank the Abbotsford Fish and Game Club for their support in all I have achieved this year.