Volunteering is certainly a rewarding experience for a Grade 12 student at Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton.
Anna James has been awarded a 70 thousand dollar University Scholarship because of her humanitarian works and concerns about world hunger.
James founded her schools Humanitarian Club and also spearheaded Project Love that distributed nearly 800 school supply kits to children in Tanzania.
Through her efforts, students at Grey Highlands have raised money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, are helping build a school in Sierra Leone and prepare so called African lunches to expose her community to different cultures.
James says last year she spent six weeks volunteering in the slums of Lima Peru at the Mother Theresa Home for the dying and destitute, helping abandoned and disabled children and elderly.
She also helped assist impoverished seniors inthe Peruvian desert.
James says that was a life changing experience for her as it showed just how much we have here in Canada and how little people have who live in third world countries.
She says some of the everyday things we take for granted could make a world of difference for someone living in poverty.
James says she was surprised when she won the scholarship, one of only 20 to be handed out to Canadian students who were chosen from more than 42 hundred applicants.
As for what she will be taking at University, she hopes it will be in the area of International development.