The Avery Scholarship: 2015 Essay Topic Award Background: This scholarship was established by the owners of Cavendish Figurines Ltd., Jeannette Arsenault and Don Maxfield and their staff, as a contribution to their Island community in appreciation of the legacy of L M Montgomery on PEI and in tribute to the "Spirit of Anne". The fictional Avery Scholarship in LM Montgomery's famous novel Anne of Green Gables was the object of fierce competition between Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe and was also the factor that caused them to end their long feud. The Avery Scholarship allowed Anne to attend Queen's University for a year before returning to become a writer and teacher on her beloved Island. Award Description: The Avery Scholarship is awarded annually to an Island high school student entering the first year of the Faculty of Arts at UPEI, and planning to major in English. The recipient is chosen on the basis of a typed 750 - 1,000 word essay on a topic provided by the Board of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute at UPEI. Deadline to apply with application form and essay is March 1. Please contact the UPEI Scholarships and Awards office at (902) 620-5187 with any questions. Students may select ONE topic from the following options for their Avery Scholarship essay: Topic # 1: L. M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside shows a lively and often poignant picture of how the Blythe family, their friends, and their community, cope with the First World War. While the boys enlist as soldiers and fight overseas, the women and older men take up different kinds of work to support the war. To commemorate Canada’s part in the First World War, Library and Archives Canada, Veterans Affairs Canada, the CBC, and many other websites tell the stories of real Canadians who participated in the war. Choose any character, male or female, from Rilla of Ingleside, and compare that fictional character’s war experiences and attitude with any real person’s First World War experiences. For instance, you might compare Jem Blythe’s trench experiences and attitude towards war with a First World War Canadian soldier’s experiences and attitude, or you might compare Rilla’s experiences and attitude with a young Canadian woman’s war experiences and attitude. Topic #2: In Anne of Green Gables, Anne exclaims, “It’s delightful to have ambitions. I’m so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them--that’s the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.” Many of L. M. Montgomery’s characters, such as Anne, Gilbert, Emily, Teddy, Perry, Sara Stanley, and Peter Craig are ambitious: all strive for higher goals, but all face challenges of different types that they must overcome to reach those goals. In your essay, compare one ambitious male and one ambitious female character. What drives or motivates their ambitions? What challenges must they overcome to reach their goals? And does Montgomery paint these goals and challenges differently for the boy and girl you have chosen? If so, why do you think that is? .