Elizabeth Francoeur used the sacrifices her parents made to give her a good education as motivation to always perform at her best.

It paid off for the former Warwick Academy student who was recently awarded a scholarship to study commerce at McGill University in Quebec.

Ms Francoeur, 18, has consistently earned top grades in school and was on the Principal’s List honour roll every year since 2014.

She said: “I have two younger sisters and I know how expensive it can be to send three children to private school, so I always used my parents as inspiration to work hard. I saw the sacrifices they would make and it would motivate me not to take my education for granted.”

She said her parents were her biggest sources of inspiration: “They showed me how nothing is given to you and you have to work hard with determination and resilience. They also helped me to build my resilience skills because my parents have always said how sometimes I may try my absolute best but still not be the best.

“I can work harder for next time and shouldn’t compare myself to others if I knew I did the best I could. That is something that I have kept with me.”

Armed with those lessons, Ms Francoeur won awards in ICT, chemistry, economics and French. She was deputy head girl and launched a high school mentor programme.

Once she has graduated, she hopes to embark on a career in the insurance industry in Bermuda. “I am particularly interested in broking or underwriting. The Bermuda insurance industry is what inspired me to pursue my planned career path so I am excited at the opportunity to return and work in that same industry.

“After university, I want to work towards obtaining an insurance designation. I feel that a professional designation would help me to differentiate myself to an employer and also present the opportunity to further develop my knowledge in a field I’m very interested in.”

Asked how she was able to stay ahead of the game academically, Ms Francoeur said time management and dedication were key.

“I worked very hard and always put my best effort into all of my work. I had a busy schedule throughout the week so I always tried my best to complete work in advance. That also gave me time to see the teacher if I had any questions about the work.

“Furthermore, I am a very organised person. Everything was kept in a planner that was very important to me.

“Also, when the time came to narrow my subject choices at the GCSE level and International Baccalaureate level afterwards, I selected classes that interested me the most rather than classes that were said to be the easiest or classes that my friends were taking.

“I found that taking the classes which interested me made it a lot easier to be motivated to complete the work and study for my exams which helped me achieve high levels of academic standing.”

Asked how she felt to have been selected for the McGill scholarship, Ms Francoeur said: “It feels very rewarding. McGill was my first choice for university so to be able to receive a scholarship to attend my dream school truly feels like my hard work is starting to pay off. I put a lot of work into my application as well so receiving the good news was fantastic.”