Champlain College Saint-Lambert student Mahé Rabesa has been selected as one of 20 Canadian recipients of the TD Scholarships for Community Leadership.

Each year, 20 scholarships are awarded to students in their last year of high school or CEGEP (in Quebec) and have a value of up to $70,000, including up to $10,000 for tuition and $7,500 for living expenses per year for a maximum of four years.

Recipients also have the chance to make lifelong connections through summer employment with TD or a community organization funded by TD through the TD Ready Commitment as well as mentorship and networking opportunities.

“What has impressed me the most about Ms. Rabesa, is how much time and effort she has dedicated to her pursuits outside of athletics,” said Georges Germanos Head Coach of the Cavaliers Women’s Basketball team.

“Over the past 20 years coaching women’s basketball at the college, I have seen and guided the path for hundreds of promising student-athletes, and I find what Ms. Rabesa has been able to accomplish in very little time is astonishing. I can say without any doubt that she possesses all the attributes and intangibles that will lead her to a successful career. She works hard academically, is passionate about the betterment her community, and has the ultimate positive ‘can do’ attitude with any task or project she decides to take on,” he said.

Mahé has been involved in numerous social activities throughout her school career: student newspaper, basketball, student council, génies en herbe and secondaire en spectacle.

With a passion for community involvement, Mahé is a singer-songwriter and high-level athlete from the island of La Réunion, and describes herself as a project facilitator. Throughout her CEGEP career, she oversaw a number of them.

Firstly, through her involvement with two committees (Black Lives Allyship Mission and Multicultural Crew), the scholarship holder created a festival, Diversity in the arts, to highlight Quebec art in all its forms. The aim of this large-scale project is to encourage young people to discover, consume and try art, by giving them direct access to the artist and to what goes on behind the scenes.

Mahé also took part in several other projects that corresponded to her values. For example, she took part in an artistic residency with the Imago theater to enable women and non-binary people to learn the performing arts. She has also orchestrated cooking workshops, in partnership with a local grocery store, to show students how to cook and eat well on a budget. In her spare time, she pursues her career as a basketball player and devotes herself to the guitar, her instrument of choice.

For the future, she’ll be continuing her studies at Brandon University in Manitoba in Creative Arts, while keeping her time and energy to facilitate access to culture in Quebec!