Rocky Sloan, a student at Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Secondary School, has a plan after receiving a Loran scholarship, worth up to $100,000.
“It is my dream to become a doctor,” Sloan said. “Right now, I’m thinking family medicine. Hopefully come back and work here in Nanaimo after I get my MD.”
It’s a goal Sloan has had ever since a brush with tragedy as a child.
“When I was 11 my family was in a serious car accident, although thankfully not fatal,” he said.
Sloan says he was airlifted to the BC Children’s Hospital, where he received emergency surgery.
“I was told afterwards that I was very lucky to be alive. And I just think that the kindness and the way I was treated by the staff there, it really moved me and it showed me just how valuable the medical profession could be. I think before that I didn’t really consider the impact that I could have on other people’s lives as a doctor.”
Through connections at a medical clinic he used to work at, Sloan started a program called Students for Seniors, which sees highschoolers help elderly community members.
“We focus on performing tasks and services that seniors used to be able to do, but then as they got older, they can no longer do, hoping to keep them out of assisted living,” he said.
Dover Bay Secondary student Rocky Sloan is one of 36 Loran scholars across Canada. The scholarship is worth up to $100,000. Sloan hopes to one day become a family doctor in Nanaimo
Sloan says that he thinks one of the biggest benefits is helping the two generations connect with each other. He says “chase your dreams” is one of the messages seniors are consistently sharing with him.
“ Almost every senior I’ve talked to has said that there was like a moment in their life where they did something practical and they regret it,” he said. “They wish they had chased that dream or just gone for it, taken that risk.”
Sloan is one of 36 scholars across Canada to receive a Loran scholarship. The application process involved several steps, whittling down thousands of applicants before eventually bringing a number of finalists to an event in Toronto.
Following that event, Sloan was back home in Nanaimo when he got the call letting him know he’d won.
“I picked up the phone and the woman on the other end sounded really empathetic, so I thought I maybe didn’t win it,” he said. “But then she told me that I did win it, and I was just so in shock. I just kept thanking her over and over again. And then I told my mom,” he said.
Sloan plans to pursue undergraduate studies in the fall in Ontario, as he starts on the path to one day getting an MD.
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