Gems for Gems Scholarship Selection Board

Gems for Gems Scholarship Selection Board

The Gems for Gems Scholarship Selection Board

The Gems for Gems Scholarship Selection Board is a carefully chosen group of strong women who each possess a special place in their hearts for our cause. They have come to us from varying backgrounds and stages of life to ensure each candidate will have all perspectives of consideration fully engaged in this process.

Their role is to meet with and interview each candidate placed before them with love, warmth and kindness. However, they have been tasked with selecting the scholarship recipients. This is no simple endeavour. They come fully equipped with life and scholastic experience of all varieties pertinent to this process being executed with grace and strength while working with the award recipients as well as those who are not selected.


Reem Smolley

https://www.orangetheoryfitness.com/locations?s2=calgary


 

Lorna Selig

Lorna Selig has been part of the Calgary Family and Community Social Services industry for many years.  Her passion for emotional safety and wellness in children and teens has transferred into her Personal Safety Training Company, Safe4Life.

The original Self Defense training program was developed by a City of Calgary Police Officer and has been presented in policing and security environments, corporate settings, community venues, and schools for more than 20 years.  Lorna was a trainer and facilitator with the original program for 10 years, teaching the courses for children, teens and adults. In March of 2014, Lorna purchased the company, rebranded as Safe4Life, and expanded with new classes and facilitators, while maintaining the solid integrity of the original curriculum.

Lorna wants to share this personal safety information with all individuals, but especially with children, who may find themselves inadvertently at risk and are the most vulnerable. Education and information is the best way to reduce the incidence and statistics of assault and victimization.

Being part of the Gems for Gems Community and participating in the Selection Committee is a great honor for Lorna. It is an amazing opportunity to give back to the women she supports and empowers.  Working with a team of enlightened women is what she stands for and hopes others can achieve.


Colleen Songs

Colleen Songs is a Canadian Singer/Songwriter/Inspirational Speaker who has been spreading her message about using your inner strengths to lead you to the fulfillment of your wildest dreams.
She began singing and writing when she was 14 and leaned in to those talents to carry her through adolescence, romance, heartache, back to love, motherhood, wellness, trauma, and the loss of a loved one with mental illness.

She has conquered MS for the past 21 years and has recently began singing once again following a car accident that caused her to have emergency neck surgery leaving her more afraid of losing her voice than afraid of the surgery.

Using that time of recovery, Colleen wrote her memoir, ‘INHALE’ with Tellwell Publishing Canada based on her journey as a Caregiver of a loved one with Mental Illness where she had to dig deep into her inner strengths and gut instincts that kept her alive, able to escape, and living her dream life.

Currently Colleen is writing and recording her second album ‘This Life’, one song at a time, and working on her memoir sequel…because “Dreams Never Expire!”-Colleen Songs.

www.colleensongs.ca


Katie Turner

Katie Turner is a psychologist, speaker and intuitive healer and believes in a holistic approach to healing. Katie is passionate about helping others connect with the power of their own inner light to create deep and lasting transformation.

Katie speaks on the psychology and spirituality of creating change and offers one-on-one sessions, workshops and groups to provide healing and guidance to spiritual seekers.
Learn about the science and spiritual of creating change at katieturner.ca

“I am so thrilled to be able to offer my services in support of Gems for Gems and all the amazing, heart-cantered women involved. Jordan is a beautiful soul inside and out and has created a beautiful vision and community. I love the focus on empowering women to empower themselves and I am so excited to have been invited to be a part of the Zero to Hero series.”


Bonnie Earl

Bonnie Earl is a Women’s Empowerment Coach and speaker with a 35-year history in education. Since her husband’s death from ALS in 1997, she has been guiding women feeling pain, fear, and confusion to create a new, empowering story of their lives. Bonnie is masterful at holding space for women so that regardless of their pain, with support, they can access the deep power, courage and wisdom within.

Bonnie teaches a unique set of practices for a new generation of women who want to lead with their feminine side. She teaches women how to get out of their heads and into their bodies, to connect with their powerful feminine energy. Anyone who works and plays with Bonnie embodies the teachings to lead so they can have a positive, joyful, juicy life, as well as the ability to earn the income they desire.


Ang Ferlaino

“I am honored and inspired to have been asked to join Gem for Gems. I moved to Calgary from Montreal looking for change, stability and opportunity. What I found was so much more; a fantastic support network of friends and family who are encouraging of my goals and dreams. I am blessed to to be able to stay home with my son, while working part time providing nutrition assessments and am back in school pursuing my dreams of working in the medical field.

Gems for Gems is a great organization that provides a positive forum for women to work together in support of each other. I am looking forward to connecting with all the wonderful women in this organization as well as paying forward all the kindness, generosity and support I was lucky enough to receive when I first moved here.”