Head Boy Offered Two Chancellor's Scholarships

Thomas Gwynne-Timothy is facing what you might call a win-win situation: he must decide whether to accept the Chancellor's Scholarship from Acadia or from Dalhousie.

The 2011-12 Head Boy will study engineering. He knew he wanted to stay in the Maritimes, so these scholarships were welcome news. Their total value is $71,000. Both scholarships required applications that included, in addition to transcripts, commentaries from the applicants on their extra-curricular involvements and vision of themselves as part of the university community. It isn't surprising that Thomas would be selected based on those criteria, as he is not just a top student, but also a central part of school life at HGS. Thomas has been on student council throughout high school, on the cross-country, golf and basketball teams, has played various roles in the school's theatrical productions, and he tutors on the weekends. Thomas was inspired to be active in school life by seeing how involved older students were when he was younger. “Guys like Pelham (Flowerdew '11), Matt Bluteau ('09), Ben Jain ('09), Matt Boswick ('08).”

Asked how he manages to stay on top of it all, Thomas talks about the value of knowing your limits, and of building and maintaining good habits. “I find I get more done the busier I am. But you need to know how to schedule your time. And you need to be able to be distracted sometimes; you can't just be busy all the time. I have a little brother in the Prep School, and he loves to play with his big brother, so I need time for that.”

He adds that the close knit community at Grammar makes it fun and interesting to learn and to be involved in school life. “If I have a math question, I can text it to my teacher and he'll get right back to me. My cross-country coach has all these interesting stories, he's just an interesting guy to be around. It's things like that that make school interesting and not a chore.”