Four Richmond secondary school students will start a new chapter in university with a scholarship, which recognizes their courage, grit and steely determination when faced with adversity in their lives.
The Horatio Alger Scholarship, founded by the non-profit Horatio Alger Association of Canada, has awarded 170 need-based scholarships to high school students this year.
A R. C. Palmer secondary student called Liang Liu received the top award of $10,000 under the Horatio Alger National Entrepreneurial Scholarship, which includes a trip to Washington D.C. in spring. Three Richmond students received $5,000.
“I’m really excited and overwhelmed. It’s amazing to be recognized by the scholarship, which really inspires me to push on,” Liu told the Richmond News.
“The scholarship is like a symbol showing that hard work and persistence will really get you anywhere no matter what adversity comes anyone’s way.”
Liu, who currently resides in Richmond, had a “very rough” childhood including having to constantly move to different places and struggled with losing friends.
“At one point in my life, when I was really young, in Grade 2 or 3, I was living in the United States. Things were very rough. My parents were divorced and my mom was struggling with mental illness that didn't allow her to work. We had no money and were struggling to live,” recalled Liu.
“When I was small, I realized that I wouldn’t let that stop me. I remained optimistic and always thought of good stuff, and I had the fierce determination to make my mom and my life better, and also the world.”
From then on, when other children were playing, Liu would go to the library every single day to study, read books and teach himself programming, which he always had a passion for.
"Because I knew I wanted to make my life better. I didn’t want to stay like this," said Liu.
Now Liu looks forward to continuing to pursue his dream by studying computer science at the University of British Columbia, with the Horatio Alger scholarship paying part of his tuition and relieving some of the financial stress.
“My message to everybody else would be that, even though there are times that feel rough and hard, tough times don’t last, only tough people do,” said Liu.
“Even if you are feeling like there is no hope, you have to create that hope for yourself. That’s my belief.”
