Alberta dancer gets prestigious scholarship in U.K.
Calgarian heading to St. Andrews, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met while studying in 2001
A student at the school of Alberta Ballet is "spinning" after receiving a huge scholarship to a prestigious school in the U.K. — but it's not for dancing.
Julia Sawatzky is the first Albertan to receive the McEuen Scholarship at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, which has only been given to one Canadian a year since 1974.
Tuition for the school — which was famously attended by Prince William and Kate — would cost more than $170,000 for three years without the scholarship.
The 17-year-old will be moving to Scotland in September to study medicine at the university after achieving a 97 per cent average in the advanced placement courses she takes at Bishop Carroll High School.
"It's a big time commitment, and obviously it takes a lot of dedication," said Sawatzky.
Captivated by the science of things
Sawatzky is a student at the School of Alberta Ballet and says while most dancers are fascinated by the artistry of ballet, she is captivated by something else.
"How this muscle is being activated, and then how the aerodynamics of this jump, and then it's having all that and putting the artistry into it so that the audience doesn't know that this is your centrifugal force, what they see is like, that you're flying," she said.
Sawatzky will be taking her interest in science to the prestigious university, which is more than 600 years old.
It's currently ranked as one of the top four universities in the U.K. after schools like the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, based on results from both Time magazine and The Guardian.