Shaye Kemball '16 Recruiting Profile

Hello, My name is Shaye Kemball and I am proud to be the Student Council President at John Taylor Collegiate!

In addition to playing softball I have a passion for volunteering and doing anything I can to make the world a better place.  This year I will be participating in a philanthropic service learning trip to Nicaragua. Our school is actively involved with the Free the Children Organization and we have done several awareness and action campaigns that educate us about the violations against basic human rights.

Personally, after learning about the fact that in some countries girls were being denied an education, and one of the factors that played into this was the lack of accessible water in developing communities, I felt compelled to do something about this to help create awareness and take action. In grade 10 I created the first “Walk for Water” event in our school. I led 70 students with pails and buckets down to our community creek  in an effort to simulate the walk that children my age (primarily girls) do each and every day in order to provide their families with water. This event raised $1200.00, but more importantly, it educated our students about a social injustice occurring in our world, and created an opportunity to take action and help those in need.  We continue to do this awareness activity every year.

In addition to the Walk for Water, I have also modeled the importance of service and citizenship by helping to organize different fundraising activities for the school, organizing hamper and monetary collections for Winnipeg Harvest and Winnipeg Cheer Board, creating and leading whole school assemblies to bring awareness to social justice issues through Free the Children initiatives, acted as a mentor for our incoming grade 9 students (as well as for our special needs students), and participated in several leadership workshops.

Over the past two years I have been honoured to receive several awards which recognize my dedication to philanthropy. Such awards include the Governor Generals Award for Caring Canadians, The Moe Kowalson Optomist Club of St. James Award for Student Volunteerism as well as the United Way of Winnipeg Award for Youth Volunteers.

My goal is to attend a University or College to play softball and to pursue a career as an Educator focusing on Children with Special Needs.