Former Five Counties Client Receives $3,000 Scholarship as She Pursues Career in Nursing

By Scott Arnold

A Peterborough-area woman who once received hearing and speech support at Five Counties Children’s Centre is now working toward a career in nursing, with a prestigious provincial scholarship helping her take the next step.

Peterborough’s Kara Doherty is getting assistance on that path after being named one of Empowered Kids Ontario’s 2026 Scholars. This prestigious award is given annually to eight students across Ontario (photo courtesy of Five Counties)

Kara Doherty has been named one of eight recipients of the 2026 Empowered Kids Ontario (EKO) Scholarships, earning $3,000 toward her post-secondary education.

Doherty began pre-health studies at Loyalist College this fall, with the goal of becoming a nurse specializing in geriatrics or pediatrics.

The award recognizes her academic and personal journey, which began with support from Five Counties Children’s Centre when she was a young child.

Doherty was born with conductive hearing loss, a condition that prevents sound from reaching the inner ear. Her hearing loss was first identified after her parents brought her for screening through the Infant Hearing Program at Five Counties. She went on to receive support from audiologists and speech therapy at the Centre.

She credits that experience with helping build her communication skills and confidence.

“I always loved it at Five Counties. I always found it so amazing,” Doherty recalls.

The EKO Scholarships are awarded annually to eight students across Ontario who were previously clients of organizations belonging to Empowered Kids Ontario. The program is designed to help reduce financial barriers to post-secondary education and support young people with disabilities and developmental needs as they pursue their goals.

For Doherty, receiving the scholarship is about more than financial assistance.

“The EKO Scholarship sounded like a great opportunity and I’m extremely grateful to be among this year’s recipients,” she says. “This award shows society that differences and individual hurdles don't limit a person, but rather they can use their experiences to serve others.”

Growing up with hearing loss brought challenges, including difficulty communicating and dealing with assumptions and stereotypes from others. Doherty says some care providers saw her only as a patient rather than as a person.

“I’ve spent much of my life hating not being able to hear, in part because people always assumed things about me,” she says. “But I’ve grown to feel comfortable in my own shoes. It’s made me who I am for the better, not the worse.”

That confidence also means embracing the tools that help her hear, including her hearing aids and assistive devices. As Doherty puts it, she particularly likes “the bright pink, sparkly ones.”

Her experiences have helped shape the kind of nurse she hopes to become. She sees a future in health care as an opportunity to offer others the same respect and support that made a difference in her own life.

Her guiding mantra is simple: “Treat everyone as they are, not judge them.”

Five Counties CEO Scott Pepin says seeing a former client succeed as an adult is especially rewarding.

“It’s a joy working with a young child to give them the treatment support they need, and even more gratifying to see them excel and succeed as they hit their stride in adulthood,” Pepin says.

For Doherty, the scholarship marks another step toward a career built around helping others, while showing that the challenges she faced growing up have helped shape her future rather than define its limits.

Scott Arnold is a Journalist and Content Creator at PTBOCanada Media Inc

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