Axa XL has awarded the 2019 Axa XL Scholarship Mount Saint Agnes Academy Valedictorian Conor Sinclair.

The Axa XL Scholarship is a four-year full scholarship open to students who are Bermudian or hold Permanent Resident Certificate status and are working toward a degree in re/insurance industry related studies.

Eighteen-year-old Conor, the son of Colleen and Michael Sinclair of Pembroke, was selected from a list of more than 30 applicants for the scholarship.

Conor will be attending the University of Notre Dame in the US this September. With a passion for mathematics, he plans to obtain a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics and to pursue a career as an actuary in the re/insurance industry.

Admitting that he loves to challenge himself, Conor’s academic, extracurricular and community service performance demonstrates this.

His academic achievements include winning the 2019 Bermuda Outstanding Teen Award for Academic Achievement Male Category, achieving Honors with Distinction (an average of 90 percent or higher) for each year of high school, and being a member of the National Honours Society, which recognises students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service and character.

During his time at Mount Saint Agnes Academy, Conor was also actively involved in extracurricular activities including serving as class captain and high school treasurer for the student council; playing for the Bermuda boys junior national volleyball team as well as the school volleyball, basketball and badminton teams.

In addition to this, Conor successfully completed the Duke of Edinburgh programme, earning the bronze Award in 2016, the Silver Award in 2017 and the Gold Award in 2018 after completing a four-day expedition on Cat Island in the Bahamas.

He has excelled in the Scout Association during the past 10 years. He was the Bermuda patrol leader for the Scouts at the World Scout Jamboree in Japan in 2015, was awarded the Chief Scouts Platinum Award in 2018, and recently received the Chief Scout’s Diamond Award. He is currently pursuing the Queen’s Scout Award which is the highest youth award in the Scouting movement in the Commonwealth.

Conor also volunteers by tutoring younger students in maths, participating in feeding the less fortunate programmes such as Salvation Army’s Soup Run and Saint Vincent De Paul “Loaves & Fishes”, raising thousands of dollars for cancer research by shaving his head three years in a row for St Baldrick’s and participating in the Movember effort to raise awareness about men’s health issues such as prostate cancer.

Carol Parker Trott, chairwoman of the Axa XL Scholarship Committee, said: “Every year we are impressed by the calibre of young people who apply for this scholarship.

“It’s an honour and pleasure to meet each one of them and it gives us great confidence in Bermuda’s future.

“Conor’s intellectual curiosity, leadership ability and dedication to others in the community exemplifies Axa’s values and commitments. We are proud to have him as our 2019 Scholar and look forward to all that he will no doubt accomplish in the years to come as a valuable contributor to the community and the re/insurance industry.”