A local student is in Ottawa learning more about the First World War this week as a recipient of The Vimy Foundation's Vimy Pilgrimage Award.
The Vimy Foundation is a non-profit organization and is the leading voice of the First World War in Canada that works to preserve and promote Canada's First World War legacy, through education programs like the Vimy Pilgrimage Award.
Each year the non-profit receives hundreds of applications from students aged 14 to 17 years old from all across Canada. Applicants must showcase their volunteer experience, something which Matthew Lee, a Grade 12 student at Cochrane High School has in spades.
"Most of my leadership and community volunteer work is around my school community," explained Lee, who has attended all three schools at the Tri-Site. "I just really wanted to help my school community so the main thing was literacy tutoring, which is like a reading program between the high school and the elementary school."
Lee said the work is near and dear to his heart as an immigrant from South Korea who started school in Cochrane in Grade 3.
"It's been such a meaningful thing to help someone with English because I once struggled with it as well," he said.
Lee left for Ottawa Nov. 8 to join the 19 other winners selected from across Canada. They will learn more about the First World War, visit historical sites, complete projects and partake in a Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11.
"It's a unique program and that's what drew me to it," said Lee. "The idea of bringing historical past ideas to the future so we can once again use those historical memories, problems or experiences that people faced and bring that to us now so we can use that to our future advantage, especially now because of COVID."
Lee said he is both looking forward to meeting the other students as well as taking the time to reflect and learn about the First World War and what Canadian soldiers went through.
"My knowledge of the First World War was social studies and one my teachers actually really invoked something within me while she was teaching. Her name was Miss Hodgson. All I know has been learned from textbooks and the Alberta curriculum. I really want to go above and beyond the curriculum and learn more and understand."
Education lead for The Vimy Foundation Alicia Dotiwalla explained that one of the key criteria in selecting the 20 recipients of the award is a demonstration of commitment toward bettering their respective communities through volunteer work and Lee's contribution to Cochrane stood out in his application.
Through a two-round process to review the applications, which includes the submission of a 500-word written piece and a video essay, students selected from their submissions are then narrowed down to meet with representatives of The Vimy Foundation in an interview to determine the 20 recipients.
"The community service aspect is really something that we put a lot of emphasis on, more than anything else for this particular program," Dotiwalla said. "The students demonstrate what community service means to them in their specific context. Matthew wrote about being a literacy tutor and volunteering to raise awareness for homelessness in his community. In his interview, he was very energetic and a very enthusiastic candidate."
The award is first and foremost an educational program, she said, but is significant on a number of levels.
"A lot of [the students] have an interest in military history, but not all of them, and that's not really the criteria for the award," she explained. "A lot of students are interested in history or learning different ways to learn about history and engage with history. For us, a really important factor of this program is to encourage not just learning facts and dates, but really critical thinking and thinking about larger themes related to this event in Canadian history."
Award recipients will look at different people who served during the war to obtain a more personal view of their lives, she said.
"Each of the students researches either a soldier or a nurse and writes a biography that they share with the group and that's a really impactful aspect for a lot of the students," she explained. "They also do group projects on a specific theme."
The program resonates with students of this age who are often learning about Canada's military history simultaneously and who are eager to meet like-minded individuals and visit historic sites, said Dotiwalla. It's a unique opportunity to get to know history beyond the textbook.
