By Brian Kelly, Sault Star

Travel has offered Sonia Coccimiglio some of the best lessons she’s learned in life.

The Grade 12 student at Korah Collegiate and Vocational School has visited seven countries, including Grand Cayman Islands and Dominican Republic, since 2002. She most recently organized a graduation trip with S-Trip! to Cuba for about 25 Grade 12 students from Korah.

“I honestly think it’s the best education you can get,” said Coccimiglio, 18.

“I sit in the classroom day after day. I go somewhere for a week and I learn way more (than) in the past semester.”

Another chance to see the world beckons if she can top an online competition that wraps up next week.

Coccimiglio is one of 20 finalists in S-Trip!’s The Amazing Travel Scholarship. They were chosen from more than 800 student entries.

Top prize includes up to $7,000 for tuition and books for a year of post-secondary study, a seven-day trip for the winner and three friends to a destination only described as “paradise” and a paid summer internship at the company’s Toronto office.

Online support can help Coccimiglio win the grand prize. Members of blogging platform Tumblr can like Coccimiglio’s submissions posted at http://theamazingtravelscholarship.tumblr.com/tagged/SoniaCoccimiglio

They can also view Coccimiglio’s Instagram account, The Ultimate Travel Diary. Social media posts mentioning #SoniaCforATS and #studentTrip also help Coccimiglio’s chances to be named winner on June 20.

Europe and Asia are next on Coccimiglio’s travel list with Italy at the front of the line.

“I just love how you can get away from everything,” she said of her wayfaring ways.

“It allows you to discover who you really are. You see so many things and learn so much.”

Coccimiglio will study commerce at University of Windsor in the fall. Her goal is a career, such as law, that will allow her to keep travelling the globe.

S-Trip! is the student travel division of Handa Travel. The company started in 1976 and has offices in five Canadian cities and the Dominican Republic.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.saultstar.com/2013/06/14/sault-teen-vies-for-travel-prize