Katrina Innanen 2011 - 2015

BEAP showed me the value of hard work and stepping outside of your comfort zone, which has helped me tremendously in my athletic and academic endeavours since. At Birchmount I was surrounded my hard-working, high-striving like minded people which created an atmosphere of success in which I thrived. Going into high school I was very shy and was constantly scared of failure and embarrassing myself. BEAP helped me get outside of my comfort zone, I learned that failing and messing up wasn’t the end of the world, and that if you fall down, you get right back up and try again and again. This helped me to realize the large goals that I had and be able to see how I can achieve them with perseverance. 

The competitive atmosphere at Birchmount gave me the drive I needed to seek out high performance opportunities and think “why not me?”. I grew tremendously as a person and athlete during my 4 years in BEAP that by the time I transferred to university varsity track and field I was strong and ready physically and mentally to compete with the big dogs. Seeing the success of my peers and former BEAP students also motivated me to realize my larger athletic goals and seek them out. 

Since leaving Birchmount I have continued my high performance running at the University of Toronto which has led me to 2 national team titles, and 3 individual national medals, and 3 all-Canadian titles. In 2017 I was the Ontario champion over 300m and national runner up, and was a double bronze medalist at Canada Summer Games. Academically I have been an academic all Canadian every year that I have been at UofT and achieved the R-Tait McKenzie award for achieving a GPA in the top 10% in my class as well as the Presidents Scholarship of Excellence and the Bradley Award for leadership. BEAP gave me the life skills and attributes that made these achievements possible. Coming from being surrounded by such a hard-working group of people, I am constantly pushing myself to do my best each day in everything. In my second year I was named a captain of the track team, which was a huge honour. I believe that BEAP gave me the conscientious attitude and leadership skills necessary to undertake this role. 

In the future I hope to continue to improve athletically, with my largest goal being to make a senior national team. Academically I have my sights set on a career in a clinical field, potentially medical school, but I am still trying to figure that out. Ultimately, I hope to make a difference and leave each place better than when I entered it. If I could inspire people and help them to live better lives then I will be happy!