CtK student wins Millennium award

Daniel Van Kessel, a student at Christ the King Catholic Secondary School, was among the winners of the 2006 Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's entrance Awards. The award recognizes students entering university or college for their leadership skills, community involvement, academic achievement and interest in innovation. Van Kessel's award was for $4,000. Van Kessel was honoured for his good citizenship, fresh ideas and academic merit and displayed a passion and talent for business. He is active in the Junior Achievement Program and for the second year in a row is serving as vice-president of human resources. He has been honoured as an Outstanding Achiever of the Year and last year represented Ontario at the Canadian National Junior Achievement Conference. In an effort to help students at his school with an interest in pursuing a business career he was instrumental in establishing his school's chapter of DECA (an association of business and marketing students). Students are encouraged to think critically about different business situations and have the opportunity to compete against many other students. In its first year no team or individual came lower than 30th of 160 students. Local award winners receive a one-time $4,000 award. Provincial/territorial award winners receive a $4,000 award, renewable up to three times (for a possible total of $16,000). National award winners receive a $5,000 award, renewable up to three times (for a possible total of $20,000). Local and regional awards are distributed in each province and territory based on their share of the Canadian population, while national awards are allocated to the most exceptional applicants across the country, regardless of provincial and territorial quotas. More information about the foundation and its programs can be found at www.millenniumscholarships.ca.