Three high school graduates have received the Cochrane & Area Humane Society Scholarship, for their dedication to pursuing a career related to human or animal care, health, medicine or education.

The scholarship has been given out for a number of years to graduating Cochrane and Morley high school students; Janine Rossler, Operations Manager Cochrane and Area Humane Society, says the money can kickstart a career of compassion.

"A lot of high school graduates may not know exactly they want to aspire to," she says. "They know that they have a passion for animals or human health or care, so this allows them to start pursuing that."

Rossler shares it is great importance for the organization to support the students who wish to follow a humane career.

"Humane education isn't necessarily only with animals, but with humans as well. We really want to support and commend individuals that are growing circles of compassion, not just in an animal sense, but in their communities with people as well. Working on empathy, compassion, caring, and kindness; those are things that just intermingle between animal and human professions."

She adds the three young women who were awarded the 2016 scholarship have very close ties with the Cochrane and Area Humane Society.

"These girls have aspirations to go on to study veterinary medicine, marine biology, or conservation biology, things like that. The scholarship allows them to figure out what they want to do, and because they also do meaningful volunteer hours, it gives them a sense of what they can expect in the future."

The Cochrane and Area Humane Society will post application forms for the 2017 scholarship in the fall.