Eighteen-year-old Bailey Lo has always been a dedicated student, but her hard work really paid off this week.
Lo was named a 2011 recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Medal.
"I'm very, very excited about receiving this medal. It was a really big honour to be selected for it and I'm very thankful to the teachers who helped me through the years," said Lo, who credits much of her success to the staff at Stelly's secondary school. "I owe a lot to them because I wouldn't have been receiving this award without them and wouldn’t have been as prepared as I was for university if it hadn't been for them."
The teen was given the prestigious award for her outstanding academic performance throughout her final year of high school at Stelly's in 2010-11.
The ceremony, which was held at the school on June 28, is always held one year following the student's graduation, allowing for final grades and provincial examinations to be processed.
Lo says her focus in school has always been academics.
"I always enjoyed school and it was always very important to me that I did well," said Lo. "Even in the summers, I used to ask my mom, ‘Can I go back to school now?'" laughed Lo.
Lo says her passion for academics comes from the challenge it offers.
"For me school and getting good grades was about the personal challenge. It was always about how creative I could be, how much I could push myself and how well I could do."
Following her graduation last year, Lo was offered a chancellor's scholarship to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. where she spent the last year studying in the faculty of arts and science. Lo hopes to obtain her bachelor of arts degree in science with a minor in physics.
The Governor General's Academic Medal was started in 1873 by Lord Dufferin and is now regarded as one of the most respected academic awards a student can receive. To qualify, students must hold the highest grade average in a high school.