Excellence rewarded for Amena Ali

Amena Ali, whose worldview truly is global, has her gaze set on India, where she is spreading 'abhilasha,' better known in English as 'hope.'

When we first met, Amena was initially reticent to talk about her own accomplishments, but when she started to talk about her humanitarian work in India, her words begin to float as though being carried by the sacred Ganges itself.

That type of passion for others was one of the big reasons she managed to win over the jury that hands out the 20 prestigious TD/Canada Trust scholarships every year/ One of only two winners from Quebec, she was the only St. Laurent resident to bring one home.

In 2004, she travelled to India to discover a school run by her uncle on the outskirts of Rajnandgaon, in central India. There, more than 80 blind or handicapped students were getting an education they otherwise might have had access to, and where they learned to live independent of their families.

The building they were using, however, was falling apart. Amena Ali made it her mission to get the students a new, safe building to call their own.

She called her project 'abhilasha,' the Hindi word for hope.

On the verge of her final year at Marianopolis, Ali has developed a taste for disseminating knowledge.

"When you're talking about development, the key to everything is education," she said. "Deprived of an education, the difficulties faced by handicapped children are even more of a challenge to be overcome."

Showing a maturity beyond her years, the young St. Laurent resident still has her eyes on the prize over the long term. Her studies can now be financed with the $60,000 that came with the TD/Canada Trust scholarship and her 'abhilasha,' project, which she wishes to keep up and running.

"The goal is to create sustainable development over the long term and that's something to look after in the future. She's also one of six St. Laurent students to be awarded scholarships in 2007.

"I encourage students at CEGEP to apply for scholarships. Not too many actually do it, but your chances for getting one increase when you do things that are important in the community and get involved," she said.

(Translated by Marc Lalonde)