Hello! My name is Anna Van Winkoop and I was born in Calgary, Alberta. My mother, father and I moved to Kenosee Lake, Saskatchewan when I was 18 months old, and we have lived there ever since. I have one younger sister, who just completed her first year of engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, and we have 2 family pets; a 10-year-old beagle and a 3-year-old yellow lab.
I am 21 years old and currently completing my fourth year of university studies. I was initially accepted at the University of Regina into the Faculty of Science with an undeclared major, then I transferred into the pre-professional program with hopes of becoming an optometrist. In January 2022, I transferred to the Faculty of Education as I had finally decided what I wanted to become when I was older. I am now working on completing my final course requirements, with my internship remaining in the Fall 2024 semester.
For the past 7 summers, I have worked at the Club 19 Restaurant at Golf Kenosee. I started out working in the kitchen washing dishes. As the years went on I moved up to prep-cooking. Once I turned 19 I was finally able to serve, bartend and work the beer cart out on the golf course. My father is the superintendent of Golf Kenosee, so growing up I spent a large majority of my time around the course.
I played many different sports growing up. I have participated in figure skating, golfing, curling, badminton, volleyball, soccer, and softball. Playing all of these different sports was an attempt by my parents to keep me active. I dropped most of these activities around the age of 13 and only carried through with golf and curling to Grade 12.
I achieved a Bronze Provincial banner, in Girl’s Team Golf, in 2018 and I achieved a Bronze Provincial banner in Girl’s Curling, in 2020. I graduated high school with a 96% average; I was always known as the “smart one” in all of my classes.
These two Provincial banners serve as a reminder to me that we are capable of anything we put our minds to. If you work hard enough and believe in yourself you can achieve anything. I am immensely proud every time I walk into my high school gymnasium and see my name hanging on the walls, not once but twice.