Heather Wright/The Independent

Yarko Zelenchuk doesn’t think he deserves to be a Nicol Scholar.

But Monday, the Petrolia 18-year-old stood side-by-side with his classmates Alessia Beck, Jillian Layne, Marlee Shuart and Ellis Wellington in the LCCVI Library posing for photos after being named to the prestigious group on the scholarship’s 40th anniversary.

Zelenchuck says he would never have been in those photos without the help of the people of Petrolia and the LCCVI community.

Zelenchuk, his parents and brother fled Lviv – a city of more than one million people in western Ukraine – four months after war broke out in 2022. They had no connections to Canada but mom, Nataliia Zelenchuk, was determined to immigrate, saying Canada created an opportunity for her sons to live in safety.

Petrolia residents came alongside the family, including LCCVI teachers Pete and Krista Mueller, to help them adapt.

Yarko admits it wasn’t easy entering Grade 9 with English as his second language. But he worked hard and became active in sports, including swimming – he had a top 10 finish at SWOSSAA – and tennis where he brought home a bronze medal at the provincial high school championship in 2025.

As the end of his high school career ended, Zelenchuk chose to go to Lambton College for automation, instrumentation and technology, in part because he likes math and because he can live at home, making post-secondary education more affordable.

Wednesday, Zelenchuk received a call from principal Rhonda Leystra giving him the good news he’d been named a Nicol Scholar which includes a $10,000 US scholarship.

“I got a little bit emotional,” Zelenchuk says, tracing his finger on his face showing a tear coming from his eye

“I don’t honestly believe I didn’t deserve that (the scholarship) in some way, because I know many kids deserve that also (had) a hard job. I know that I did a lot, because English wasn’t my first language, .. it’s just honour,” he says of the scholarship.

“When I came it was tough for me, even before I used to be really shy kid and in the second language, it was really tough, but teachers, everybody was just super nice, and they understood me, they helped me, they talked me through,” Zelenchuk says. “I would be nothing without this community.”

Alessia Beck, 17, of Petrolia also feels the support of the community after being named a Nicol Scholar.

Beck has been active in student government most of her high school career. She’s also been a student senator which, she says, helped her build leadership skills. And she’s excelled in Math and the sciences.

The teen is also an entrepreneur, co-founding Petrolia Bloom Co. with her mother, a business which has blossomed to the point where they’ve partnered with Aslan Organics in Camlachie for more growing space.

Beck has worked at the local Godfather Pizza through high school – sometimes as much as 40 hours a week – working her way up to assistant manager.

As she heads to University of Ottawa next year for electrical engineering, the Nicol Scholarship will help her focus on her studies.

Beck hopes the four-year-degree will power her career building electrical grids around the world while meeting new people and learning about their cultures.

“This is an amazing opportunity. I was so grateful because this is life-changing money,” Beck said after the ceremony Thursday. “This will really allow me to do things, and not have a part-time job all of first year – maybe kind of focus on my studies.”

Beck says leaving Petrolia as a Nicol Scholar gives her hope for the future.

She says the scholarship “shows that this community is really valuing me; I also really value this community. I appreciate what they’re doing – the people behind me, this community – supporting me, and I think these (are) good things, and I’m really hopeful. It gives me more support that I really love.”

Jillian Layne is also excited to add Nicol Scholar to her achievements at LCCVI. Like Beck, Layne was active in student government during high school. But she also spent a lot of time in the music department getting up at the crack of dawn each morning to be at the school for band practice at 6:50 am.

“Music is one of my passions,” she told The Independent during the Nicol reception. Beck also spent a lot of time with the International Friends Club, feeding off the enthusiasm International students brought to town. “They’re so excited to learn about Petrolia,” she says adding they work extremely hard.

Layne plans to attend Western University hoping to become a teacher.

The teen was in the car with her mom when Principal Rhonda Leystra called to say she had been chosen as a Nicol Scholar. “We were driving home from my co-op and my mom freaked out. She was so excited, and I called my grandma. She was like bawling. She was so excited. So, my whole family was really, really, really pumped for me,” says Layne, who was also smiling throughout the ceremony.

“Just being able to say that I’m Nicol Scholar shows that I was determined in my work and I was determined in my community, and just, yeah, it really paid off.”

Ellis Wellington, 18, hopes to use his scholarship as he heads to Waterloo University for Kinesiology to build a foundation to become a physiotherapist.

The Petrolia teen, who is an avid runner participating in cross country and track and is part of the swimming team, decided on that career path after doing a co-op at Ironworks gym in Point Edward this year and helping with a boxing class for people with Parkinson’s.

“It really opened my eyes to physio and like the health science,” he says.

Wellington says he’ll be proud to be called a Nicol Scholar. “I feel like it’s pretty prestigious, and especially around here…it’s not just for athletics or grades, you have to be such a well-rounded person,” he says, adding it is definitely something to “strive to be.”

Marlee Shuart is a lover of music, drama and, in the later years of her high school career at LCCVI, rugby. The 17-year-old from Brigden has been in “every single band” since Grade 9 and helped the drama department with productions such as Clue.

“And then in Grade 11, I started playing rugby. I’m really passionate and I really enjoy it. I’m playing summer rugby now,” Shuart tells The Independent. The Girls’ team has ranked in the top eight of the province at the last two OFSAA championships.

Shuart is heading to Carelton University in Ottawa to study journalism. She wants to become a war correspondent, telling the stories of those affected by conflict.

“I really want to have a focus on civilians and war and children and war,” she says, adding while we understand there are wars, we don’t have an emotional connection to it.

“I want those people who don’t have the opportunity, to speak out and talk about it… I don’t want to hear politicians talking about a war that they have no idea about. I want to hear what’s happening with civilians.” Shuart’s goal is to show the world what the turmoil of war does to people.

After working hard in school and the school community, Shuart says the Nicol Scholarship is a fantastic surprise. “I actually almost cried, because I was just so excited.”

Her dad, who was present to watch Shuart sign the documents for the scholarship, clearly was excited too, shedding some tears during the event. While she jokingly told him to “Please hold it together” Shuart says she would be recognized as a Nicol Scholar without her parents’ support.

“They work so hard for me, because I wouldn’t do all these things if my parents didn’t drive me,” she said after giving her dad a quick hug so he could get back to work. “I didn’t get my driver’s license till Grade 12, so my parents drove me every morning to band. They drove me to drum after school. They picked me up from rugby. They got me to work. I wouldn’t be here without them driving me places, and them encouraging me to continue to do all of these extracurriculars.”

The five students’ photos will now be joining 421 other students who became Nicol Scholars over the last 40 years.

Shannon Inglis, the wife of the late Doug Inglis, a LCCVI history teacher who researched the details of the life of Robert Nicol, the benefactor of the scholarship, told the new scholars a little about their benefactor.

Nicol grew up right across the road from the school at the corner of King and Dufferin in his grandfather’s home. “Nights and weekends, the school yard was our playground,” Nicol wrote in a letter in 1986. “A million memories remain.”

He left LCCVI at the age of 15 to fight in the World War I, says Inglis, until he was hit by shrapnel and his age was discovered. Nicol returned to Petrolia, went to the Chatham School of Business, and moved with his mother and sister to the US where he began a long career at AT&T.

When he retired, she said, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, lived frugally, and spent time watching ball games of his friends’ children and grandchildren and meeting with his friend, a stockbroker, who was eventually one of the trustees of the $2.1 million foundation which has managed the scholarship program for 40 years.

Inglis said Nicol returned to Petrolia a number of times including during the town’s Centennial celebration in 1974. “It was very important to him to come back and just to walk the town and cherish those millions of memories that that he had from growing up here,” she told the new Nicol Scholars.

Ten years later, he was invited back to Petrolia for the 100th anniversary of LCCVI. By that time, he was in his 80s and was unable to travel.

But Nicol did send a letter to the committee, giving students and the school community a glimpse at his life and his love for his hometown. “Congratulations on what you are doing,” he told the LCCVI Centennial committee at the time. “It’s wonderful. Good luck.”