CHS student wins $8,000 scholarship to Briercrest

Posted: March 18, 2010

By Amy Robertson

Front banner: Left to right: Kevin Fawcett, AJ Crocker, Dylan Lawrence, and Wes Olmstead, the dean of academics, celebrate Dylan Lawrence's win.


Dylan Lawrence texts a friend after winning the scholarship.
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ntil Youth Quake 2010, Dylan Lawrence, a Grade 12 student at Caronport High School, was like every other high school senior—confused.

About what to do after graduating, that is. He wanted to go into youth ministry, but Christian colleges—Briercrest College and Seminary included—were expensive.

He prayed again and again for God to make his will obvious, and not in a subtle way.

Lawrence wanted a big, bright arrow.

YQ rolled around in February, and Chantelle Erickson, one of Briercrest’s admissions advisers and a youth leader at Lawrence’s church, asked him whether he was planning to apply for Briercrest in the fall.

“Maybe later,” he said to Erickson.

What was the point? He couldn’t afford it anyway, he figured.

Then Dave Horrocks, another admissions adviser, stepped in, and told him to just apply. If he did, they’d put his name in a draw for a full scholarship—worth nearly $8,000.

Lawrence rolled his eyes as he filled out the application. As if, out of everyone who applied, he’d be the winner, he thought.

The next morning, after a weekend filled with a lot of action and very little sleep, Dylan sat in the chapel just before the main session and prayed, “Lord, if you want me to come here ... you know what you need to do.”

Within an hour, they were drawing names for the scholarship.

“Dylan Lawrence.”

Dylan looked around, confused. What? He’d won?

“It was just like out of a movie,” he said. “There were lights, noise—I was really surprised. It was like a dream.”

Or maybe a big, bright arrow.

For Lawrence, it’s simple: “I know something good’s gonna happen, because [Briercrest] is where God wants me.”