Hector Loiselle was one of more than 5,400 applicants for the Loran Scholarship, valued at $100 000. The organization conducts a rigorous selection process, with 90 finalists convening in Toronto last weekend. In the end, the Lo Ellen Park student was one of 36 to be named a Loran Scholar for 2026. As part of the application, Loiselle responded to a questionnaire and multiple interviews. He made it through them all. “I was grateful and lucky to be selected as one of the 36 winners, ” Loiselle said. He said the scholarship will make a big difference in his life, allowing him to graduate debt-free and offering opportunities for summer programs and to meet a mentor through the scholarship. “I always knew I wanted to go to university for engineering,” Loiselle said. “To go to McMaster for this program, but specifically, I just discovered it this year, and I did a lot of research on it online. I watched some videos of students who were in the program, what their day-to-day lives look like, and it was just very interesting. It definitely was something I could see myself doing.” Dan Monti has been Loiselle’s teacher for four years at Lo Ellen Park Secondary School. Monti said Loiselle is a unique student who combines his love of biology with engineering. “One of the things I know at Lo-Ellen that we kind of strive for is to have diversity with our student group,” Monit said. “And I know with Hector, not only is he involved with robotics, but he’s also been involved with cross-country skiing and he’s heavily involved in academics here. He’s in the band and of course, he’s a world-class tumbler. So, if interdisciplinary learning is one thing that we strive for here, Hector certainly embodies that.” Outside of his studies, Loiselle works for a tutoring company and is heavily involved in gymnastics, for which he credits much of his success. “Being able to understand that all kids are different, and being able to adapt to have kids that maybe learn a little differently or kids that maybe feel a bit embarrassed, to struggle and teach them that it’s OK to make mistakes,” he said. “Mistakes are where we grow. And I think just seeing the growth I learned through these two, like maturing and gymnastics, they were really impressed by that. And that’s probably part of the reason why I was selected for this scholarship.”
