When most high school seniors visit prospective colleges they might look at the campus, or the dorms or the library, Jade Belboda only has eyes for the science lab.

Miss Belboda, 17, a senior at Albert College in Belleville, Ontario, is this year’s recipient of the $5,000 Christian Thunhurst Award.

Miss Belboda’s grant will go towards the cost of taking pre-college programmes. The award provides grants for overseas study to students who have previously participated in Bermuda Education Network programmes.

Miss Belboda took part in the 2013 Law Springboard programme completing work shadow assignments at law firms on the Island.

Law, however, is not her passion; biochemistry is.

“I went to visit McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada before I came back to Bermuda for the summer,” she said.

“I saw one of their labs and it was huge. I was like ‘oh, this would be so fun’. It was so beautiful and everything was perfect, clean and white and it was all lab coats. I thought, ‘I can do this’.”

She got her first chemistry set when she was eight years old, but was just a tad disappointed that it was for making soap rather than explosions.

“At the end of the day I think my mother made the right decision getting me soap,” said Miss Belboda with a laugh, “otherwise, I think the house would have been upside down.”

She was inspired to look at science as a career as a youngster watching the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

“At first, I wanted to be a forensic scientist,” she said, “but then I realised it would take me too long to get to the top in that profession. I realised I loved chemistry and biology is pretty easy to understand, so I thought I would put it together. I have been very passionate about it over the last two years.”

She said one of the good things about studying biochemistry is that it can take her in many different directions. She could become a doctor, a pharmacist or a science teacher, among other things.

“I feel like I would be of use if I came back to Bermuda with a degree in biochemistry,” she said.

Miss Belboda said her mother, Karen Pearman, encouraged her to apply for the Christian Thunhurst award, but Miss Belboda really didn’t expect to get it.

“My mom, said ‘you’ll never know until you try’,” Miss Belboda said. “So I wrote an essay. When I came back, my mom called and was crying on the phone and saying ‘you got it’. I was like, ‘you’re lying’. She said, ‘you got it’.”

Her interest in science is a bit of an anomaly in the family as her mother is more interested in literature and English, and her father, Ryan Belboda, is a prison officer.

Miss Belboda, a former Berkeley Institute student, has won several other awards during her academic career including the Catherine Brown award at Albert College during her first year there. She also won the Frederick Sydney Smith Scholarship Fund to attend Albert College.

The Christian Thunhurst award was set up in 2012 to honour Christian Thunhurst, a Casualty Underwriter and a former chairperson of Under 35s reinsurance association. Mr Thunhurst died suddenly in Bermuda in 2007 at the age of 34.

The award is made possible by a multi year grant of $5,000 from Mr Thunhurst’s former employer Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd.

Becky Ausenda, Executive Director of BEN said: “The aim of the Christian Thunhurst Award is to give opportunities to young Bermudians and to honour our friend and colleague.

“To date, the award has made a difference to seven students who came to us through the public education system. These students have benefitted not only through financial assistance, but also through the mentorship and work experience provided by members of the reinsurance industry. This is Christian’s continuing legacy in Bermuda and our plan is that it will continue for many years to come.”