Supporting Tomorrow's Leaders: Sailing Into Her Future

(Photo: Owen Egan)

“This has meant a great deal to me,” says Claudette van Zyl of the prestigious Greville Smith Scholarship. “It has given me the flexibility of time.”

No one could accuse van Zyl of wasting time. A U3 student in political science and economics, van Zyl is Vice-President, Academic with the Arts Undergraduate Society, organizing town halls, running the Faculty of Arts’ teaching award program, and administering the Arts Peer Tutoring Service.

And thanks to annual gifts to the Dean of Arts Development Fund, “we’re able to do so much more than student fees alone would allow” – from renovating the Arts Lounge to offering Nuit Blanche, an event that features four floors of live mural painting, poetry open-mics and student theatre.

Van Zyl is also on McGill’s varsity sailing team, which practises at least three times a week and competes with Ivy League schools. A native of Kingston, Ont., van Zyl was already sailing competitively before she came to McGill – and using her time well in many other ways, from starting her high school’s first swim team to creating an English tutoring program.

Van Zyl chose to come to McGill because of its reputation and the chance to live in Montreal, and she is highly appreciative of the support she has been given. “If McGill has shown so much confidence in me, then I should do everything in my power to prove them right!"