Rocky Sloan is all smiles after being named as a coveted Loran Scholar. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

Bright future

Devoted Nanaimo student lands prestigious scholarship

Apr 24, 2025 | 11:31 AM

NANAIMO — A serious car crash played a pivotal role in the life of an impactful local high school student, who’s eager to make his mark in the world.

In many ways, Rocky Sloan already has.

He and his family all survived the wreck, resulting in then 11-year-old Sloan being flown to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver for emergency surgery.

“That was the point that I really saw doctors as something special and valuable in our community,” Sloan, 18, told NanaimoNewsNOW. “The fact that not only was my life saved, but the idea that I could do the same for others really moved me.”

Sloan, a Dover Bay Secondary School student nearing graduation, will be enrolled in at a yet-to-be-determined university next fall, likely in Ontario, with his final goal of completing medical school.

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The daunting prospect of excessive post-secondary debt during his mission to being a doctor is no longer a concern for the charismatic Sloan.

He was named earlier this year as one of 36 annual Loran Scholars handed out to senior high school students in Canada, among more than 6,000 applicants.

Valued at more than $100,000, Sloan’s post-secondary tuition and living expenses will be paid for during his four-year undergraduate studies at one of 25 partnering Canadian universities.

In addition to paying for classes and lodging, the scholarship includes leadership development, mentorship programming, and funding for summer work experience programming.

“Although my parents were going to pay for my school, it was going to be a student debt situation and then I was going to have to pay them back when I was older,” Sloan said.

When he received a call in February from a Toronto phone number, Sloan went to his bedroom and heard what sounded like an empathetic woman on the other end.

He braced himself for bad news, not expecting his application submitted last fall would be a fruitful one.

Instead, Sloan was left in shock after hearing the unforgettable words: “Congratulations, you are a 2025 Loran Scholar.”

A stunned Sloan didn’t know what to say beyond continuously thanking the caller.

“I just walked out of the room and told my mom that I won, I was just shaking. I don’t know if I had the reaction that I expected myself to have, it was just a life-changing moment.”

In addition to being a thriving student academically with keen interests in sciences and humanities, Sloan is deeply entrenched in school-based extracurricular activities.

The Student Council member founded Dover Bay’s first French Club early last school year, where he said around a dozen students gather regularly to learn more about the language through games and trivia.

Sloan is also involved in a school-based art club, band, while he also volunteered as a scorekeeper for grade 11 and 12 basketball games.

Rocky Sloan thanks his friends Christiana, Jane and Eugenie for their love and support. (Loran Scholars Foundation)

His impacts go beyond the walls of the Dover Bay school community.

Early in his grade 11 year, Sloan founded Students for Seniors, a partnership with a Nanaimo medical clinic where Sloan previously worked.

Students for Seniors involves Sloan and five other Dover Bay students performing miscellaneous tasks for several elderly clients, where two to three appointments are fulfilled monthly.

He said they take clients shopping, clean their homes, perform yard work and other chores.

“Things that they used to be able to do but they can’t anymore. Helping every now and then with these tasks we can keep them living independently instead of having to move into assisted living.”

Students for Seniors, in the eyes of Sloan, showed him directly the value of building connections to create a stronger community.

“I think that those lessons are more valuable than anything else I’ve done in my high school years,” he said pointedly.

Sloan, who also enjoys playing the piano, tennis, hiking and hanging out with friends, describes himself as a hard-working, driven and a passionate student with a strong desire to learn.

He believes there are other Dover Bay students equally as deserving as him to be named a Loran Scholar.

“If anything, students from younger grades should look to me as an example of how just an average student who just cares in the community and works really hard in school can honestly achieve really big things.”

According to Loran Scholars Foundation, more than 680 Loran alumnus have benefited from the program since its establishment in 1988.

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