Skip to main content

École Kwantlen Park Secondary student’s cultural initiatives earn her 2025 Loran Award

loran-scholars-daisy-bains-16x9.jpgÉcole Kwantlen Park Secondary student Daisy Bains is one of just 36 students from across the country to be named one of this year's Loran Scholars. Bains was selected for the $100,000 scholarship and plans to attend UBC’s cellular anatomical and physiology program before pursuing medical school to become a general practitioner.

A Grade 12 student at École Kwantlen Park Secondary has been named one of this year’s Loran Scholars, receiving a prestigious $100,000 scholarship in recognition of her work to promote cultural heritage and diversity in her school.

Daisy Bains is one of 36 students from across the country to be named a 2025 Loran Scholar, selected from more than 6,000 applicants coast to coast. At the encouragement of the school’s career development facilitator Elizabeth Duffield, Bains applied for the Loran Award and made it through a series of semifinal and final interviews to come out on top with the six-figure scholarship.

“I wanted to see if I could fund my education to make it a little easier in the long run, and I decided to apply,” she said. “I didn’t think it would take me this far but I’m really grateful it did.”

In her application, Bains said she noticed a recurring theme of many questions that asked for the meaning behind the activities in which she participates. She highlighted her deep interest in culture and identity as part of Kwantlen Park’s BIPOC student association, a racial equity program that proactively addresses problems faced as a school community. She and fellow members also organize the school’s annual Cultural Catwalk, a major event in which students showcase their culture through a fashion show

“When I was writing the application, I didn’t think the Cultural Catwalk would be as big of a deal as it was during the interviews,” she said. “They were focusing on your intrinsic motivation for what you do.

“We wanted to do something fun that people would remember and enjoy, and it’s an engaging way for students to grasp onto the knowledge of other people’s heritage and to recognize the cultural demographics at the school.”

Bains is also a founder of the school’s Giddha dance team, a personal project of hers that stemmed from her childhood passion for dance.

“I started dancing when I was five years old,” she said. “Giddha is basically storytelling through dance. For women from the region of Punjab, it was their way of expression and I found it beautiful, even as a kid.

“My older sister goes to SFU and they started a giddha team and I thought, how cool would it be to bring this to KP. I didn’t expect the number of girls who actually wanted to participate, I didn’t realize it was something we all shared in common.”

Bains’ extracurriculars evidently caught the judges’ attention, and she quickly had her first of many interviews, culminating in being shortlisted for finalist interviews in Toronto. She said she and her national selections peers were told to watch out for a call on a certain date, and so they made a groupchat to keep track of who had received a call and how it went.

And after a few hours of seeing other finalists get calls based on timezones, her phone rang. And it was the Loran Scholars Foundation CEO Meghan Moore.

“She started off by saying her throat was sore after the selections process and I told her I felt a little sick after Toronto because of how different the weather was from B.C.,” said Bains. “Then she said, ‘I hope it was worth it because now you’re a Loran Scholar.’

“It was a surreal, out-of-body experience for me. I remember seeing my mom peeking through my door like, ‘Did you get it? Did you get it?’ while I was still on the call. I’m sure Megan could’ve heard her screaming in the background and telling everyone in the house.”

While Bains had to pinch herself, she is indeed a 2025 Loran Scholar. She plans to attend UBC’s cellular anatomical and physiology program before pursuing medical school to become a general practitioner.

“This sounds a little cliché but ever since Grade 7, I knew I wanted to do something with health sciences or medicine,” she said. “That changed a bit in high school but I feel like I’m coming back to what I wanted to do.”

Bains joins a growing list of Loran Scholars from Surrey Schools, including these from recent years:

Congratulations Daisy on being named a 2025 Loran Scholar!

Find Your School Register Today
Make a Payment Register Today
image description
Back to top
School District No.36 (Surrey)