2021 DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
GRADUATION AWARD
RCEPIENTS
Freeha Anjum
Graduated from Westmount Charter School, Calgary, Alberta. Attending University of Calgary, Neuroscience (Honours)
As a chapter head at my high school, my chapter’s executive team and I worked on creating programs that would help students interested in STEM every month. This included mentorship programs, which were especially helpful for students who were looking to apply to competitive STEM programs to gain experience, or for students applying to university. In addition to helping high schoolers, my team and I worked towards engaging middle school students in STEM to prepare them for high school studies. In this program, high school students would work with middle school classes to show kids experiments and host workshops in topics related to STEM. This allowed middle schoolers to explore the topics more and ease their anxiety around high school STEM, as well as gave high school students a teaching opportunity for their resumes. Other programs were also created with the goal of helping students in STEM, such as a database of opportunities that students could explore based on their interest (e.g. biology, technology, physics, etc), monthly newsletters with announcements for larger opportunities, and weekly Instagram posts of 20-30 programs for students to apply to. At the end of the year, my team and I also held a STEM Speaker Series, in which four speakers of various academic backgrounds spoke to different STEM topics based on student interest.
Tyler Galley
Graduated from West Island College, Calgary, Alberta. Attending Queen’s University, Applied Science
For the past four years, I’ve been producing professional level videos for my high school as part of a variety of different clubs, initiatives, and activities. I’ve always been interested in video editing, and I wanted to be able to use my skills in order to make a larger difference within my school community. As a result, I got involved in my school’s athletics association and started producing videos to promote school sports events. Pretty quickly, I started to get recognition from my peers and teachers for my work, and it made me really happy to see how much excitement and school spirit my videos were able to create. Since then, I’ve expanded to making videos for a wide variety of school initiatives, especially as part of our school’s Prefect Leadership Council in my senior year. Some notable highlights include producing a video to promote the work of my school’s Diversity and Pluralism Committee, making videos to promote various school trips to younger grades, and using technology to help facilitate livestreaming morning announcements during the pandemic. Specifically during COVID, I produced a lot of short videos with our school leadership council when we went under lockdown, which I was told by many helped contribute to a connectedness within the school community during a lonely time. Throughout my time in high school, my videos have been uploaded to our school’s official YouTube channel and been used to represent the school during open house events, and I am very proud that I was able to make such a big contribution to our local community with something that I love doing.
Isha Haider
Graduated from Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary, Alberta. Attending University of Calgary, Software Engineering
During my time as a chapter head, our team was able to arrange STEM Talks where we invited speakers that are studying and working in different fields of STEM to digitally discuss their career journey. This activity allowed for students within our school and beyond to grasp an understanding on the different subjects and potentially assist in solidifying their future decisions. Multiple speakers discussed the same topic through their own perspective based on where they lied on the timeline. A particular webinar on medical school was requested to be presented from our school’s alumni. This was slightly different from the others as there was a high concentration on the admission process into medical school rather than the life in medical school as a typical webinar would be. Our team believed that this was the strength of the webinar as the topic discussed is normally undermined. To conclude the year, we arranged a hackathon that not only engaged students in our school, but invited high school students from all around Calgary. In this hackathon, teams were provided with a problem, and two days to create a potential digital solution regarding it. The problem presented was “how might we create technology driven solutions to address the most pressing health and social justice issues that impose on our communities?”. The top three winning teams received gift baskets, 3D printed medals, and certificates of achievement. The purpose of this activity was to instigate critical thinking and allow for students to consider the situations of the communities that they reside in.
Evi Dorsch
Graduate from Strathcona High School, Edmonton, Alberta. Attending University of British Columbia, Behavioural Neuroscience
Being an outreach ambassador has been an invaluable experience. Not only have I been able to connect with other people with a keen interest in STEM, but I hope I have also been a small part of reaching out to others with the hope of inspiring their interests in STEM fields. I hope these people will grow up to become citizens who can think critically and creatively to be a part of the solution to humanity’s biggest problems. However, through webinars and such, I truly have learned more from others than I have taught them. Everyone at STEM Fellowship and everyone who has participated with STEM Fellowship has helped me realize and start to actualize my dream of promoting more diversity in STEM fields. This is important to me as it allows for a greater range of perspectives to be given, allowing for STEM innovation that is meant for more than one type of person. On top of this, STEM Fellowship’s Outreach program has allowed me to connect with other Canadian and international STEM organizations, allowing me to be a part of the connection between scientists and their work and the people who are excited about new scientific discoveries they come out with. The things I have learned through being an outreach ambassador are something I will take into the future and hopefully make the world a better place; this is of course all thanks to STEM Fellowship and everyone who works for them.
Ananya Nadiraju
Graduated from Lillian Osborne High School, Edmonton, Alberta Attending University of Alberta, Commerce
Growing up, I always wondered about the plethora of opportunities to indulge within STEM and how I can help nurture and provide value to my immediate community as well as on a global stance. My journey started in India and took me through 3 countries before settling down in Edmonton, Alberta, for the past 11 years. Living in various countries opened up my eyes to the differences and similarities between our international community; one thing that remained the same was the value given to STEM throughout schooling and the workforce. I decided at an early age this was an area I wanted to explore and, as an Outreach Ambassador for STEM Fellowship, this gave me an amazing platform to enhance my skills. We were constantly pushed to think outside the box, during our meetings, webinars and events we hosted. Over the course of this past year, we have recognized the importance of technology in our society in the ways we use it to educate, network and bring people together. We hosted a webinar which gave students an opportunity to learn about research in STEM and the different methodologies and opportunities throughout Alberta for STEM Internships. During our Q&A in this webinar, the inquisitiveness of the students really shone through, the connectivity we had was unparalleled and helped me enhance my leadership skills. I can proudly say that my thoughts have finally translated into a tangible output that has inspired many and myself as I am incredibly honored and humbled to be a recipient of the Digital Citizenship Graduation Award!
Matthew Wong
Graduated from St. Robert Catholic High School, Thornhill, Ontario
Attending University of Waterloo, Biomedical Engineering
I joined STEM Fellowship as an Outreach Ambassador so that I could help promote STEM Fellowship’s opportunities and events, and ultimately share my passion for STEM with others. Since joining, I am extremely grateful to have worked with a team of passionate STEM enthusiasts to carry out various Ontario regional projects. During my first few months as an ambassador, I researched various STEM organizations that aligned with STEM Fellowship’s mission, and accordingly reached out to them to initiate potential partnerships. Throughout the year, I also contributed to help execute events like our Diversity in STEM Webinar, which featured POC experts talk about their own experiences and barriers in STEM, and our STEM Codes competition, a coding competition held on CodeChef. At school, I regularly promoted STEM Fellowship’s events through social media, email, and word-of-mouth, ensuring that our opportunities reach as many people as possible. I reached out to teachers and classmates regarding opportunities like our Scholarly Writing Challenge, and also promoted my school’s CaYPT team. In addition to being an Outreach Ambassador, I am also a Partnerships and Outreach Coordinator for STEM Fellowship, and served as a Grade Representative for my high school’s STEM Council; both of which parallel my commitment to promoting STEM opportunities for students across Canada. I am honoured to be a recipient of the Digital Citizenship Graduation Award, and look forward to continue working with STEM Fellowship!
Arianne Ghislaine Rull
Graduated from St. Robert Catholic High School, Thornhill, Ontario
Attending University of Waterloo, Biomedical Engineering
Over the years, I garnered more than 1,000 volunteer hours. I started Global Spotlight Toronto, a non-profit organization chapter in the GTA, to empower youth to make a positive impact. I initiated building Opportunities Database, an online server of individuals, with over 1,000 active users within 7 months with the hopes of encouraging networking between students. Recently, I received a Certificate of Recognition from Canada Service Corps, which is signed by the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau for the valuable contribution I made in improving my local community through my dedicated service.
Arsalan Qureshi
Graduated from Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary, Alberta
Attending University of Calgary, Biomedical Sciences
While I was a chapter head, I had the great pleasure to lead a team of devoted individuals in improving a love of STEM in our high school through a multitude of contributions. The one that will forever stand out to me as one of my greatest successes, was helping prepare students for the national chemistry and biology contests. Our school historically does very well in these contests, and when I was appointed chapter head, I decided we may have even greater success through dedicated training sessions. These sessions consisted of myself and my fellow chapter executives teaching higher level sciences to a large audience of students, all of whom had the shared goal to put their knowledge and love for STEM to the test. We had more students write the contests than the last two years combined by advertising sessions to aid in writing the contest, a great measure of success. Other activities included research paper workshops, informative guest speaker lectures, scholarly paper contests, preparation for the CAYPT, organization for the REO sponsored by STEM Fellowship, and information on how students can get involved in the community to further their passion for STEM, whether by summer internships, or research at the university. Overall, I would say the greatest takeaway I had during my time as chapter head was being given the ability to inspire a love of learning. STEM is a vast, and often daunting, field of study to pursue, so to be able to improve the school community by making that daunting challenge seem easier was a contribution to my school I’ll always cherish.
Steven Li
Graduated from Old Scona Academic High School, Edmonton, Alberta
Attending University of Waterloo, Computer Engineering
I established the STEM Fellowship Chapter at my school to introduce students to opportunities in research and science outside of the classroom as well as provide an environment where students can learn and apply new topics within STEM! My executive and I taught research principles such as important statistical concepts, literature searching tips, and general research advice on a weekly basis. As a result of our hard work, we hosted multiple science workshops, hosted a literature review program, brought in speakers from other science organizations, created a mentorship program with students from the University of Alberta, prepared and organized a chemistry contest, and much more! My executive team intends to continue this chapter into the following years and will hopefully keep making more of an impact on our school community!
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Zainab Hakim
Graduated from Nelson Mandela High School, Calgary, Alberta
Attending University of Calgary, Health Sciences
My parents always told me to reach for the stars; I told them that is scientifically impossible. STEM is something that I have pursued through participating in opportunities that allowed me to find a community of people also interested in the known and unknown. However, I recognized that others might not be able to find a community passionate about STEM independently, as STEM is underrated at my high school. This meant that many students were robbed of the opportunity to explore opportunities to gain skills and networks for future endeavours in STEM. To address this, I became a STEM Fellowship chapter head to promote opportunities centred around STEM education and careers. With my team of four executives and two mentors, we create presentations and garner STEM competitions, seminars, and conferences that complement each presentation and advertise them throughout the school. With 30 students and growing in the club that actively participate in the meetings and enter competitions, seminars, and other opportunities, the chapter is doing its job as a STEM missionary. More students are exploring the unknown, and maybe one of those students will find a way to get to the stars.
Zahwa Fatima
Graduated from Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary, Alberta. Attending University of Calgary, Software Engineering
In my time as a chapter head, our chapter was able to organize a myriad of events that catered to different platforms, fields of study, and various student needs. With periods of isolation throughout the year, our team decided to organize a series of webinars to engage students at home whilst fostering a sense of school community despite our physical barriers. We invited a variety of specialists each week from fields such as IT, medicine, forensics, psychology, and engineering to present what they do and how they got involved. In addition to this, our team often held polls on our school’s Instagram to plan our next initiatives in accordance to what students wanted. Without regular in-person interactions, such communication through social media grew in importance and influence as this abnormal year required a focus on building a school community where everyone is included no matter how uncommon their interests are or how inexperienced they may be. This extended to our chapter-organized Hackathon, where those with and without coding experience created solutions for health and social justice issues in our community. For those simply with ideas and no coding knowledge, they made presentations explaining what features could be in their solution and how it would work. This enabled everyone to participate and bring amazing ideas forward. Overall, I am extremely appreciative of and grateful for our executive team and school to be able to build a sense of unity and support for students despite our physical barriers.
Emilie De Chantal
Graduate from Centennial High School, Calgary, Alberta
Attending University of Calgary, Biomedical Sciences
During my time as an Outreach Ambassador, I made an ongoing effort to help improve my school and community. Through STEM Fellowship, I helped create, run, and host a workshop on research, geared towards high school and university students. I was part of my high school’s leadership team, and helped manage the school Instagram account. This involved creating both informational and inspirational posts, and was a tool that we used to try and create a community for those students who chose to do school at home due to COVID-19 or who were at home for periods of time because they were forced to quarantine. I helped develop and implement our school activities, which involved planning and creating videos for the school YouTube channel and Instagram page, and also helped in the creation of an online spirit day. As well, through my school’s leadership team, I was given the opportunity to help host three online National Horizon Leadership Conferences. I am also a member of the Prospective Medical Professionals (PuMP) logistics team. PuMP is a Canadian charity dedicated to connecting aspiring students to health sciences opportunities. I helped in the development and delivery of a number of PuMP’s (online) workshops. I also helped PuMP with the creation of a number of informational Instagram posts.
Seleem Badawy
Graduated from Western Canada High School, Calgary, Alberta. Attending University of Calgary, Engineering and Business
I believe technology is the most powerful tool of today’s society. It is the way in which we can connect, learn, teach, create, and advance into the future. During my time in high school, I grew to understand how I can use technology in my own way to teach things that I know, spread awareness of what I am passionate about, and help and inspire others. My role as a STEM Fellowship outreach ambassador has allowed me to contribute positively to the digital landscape through sponsorship outreach, digitally promoting STEM Fellowship events giving youth the opportunity to learn more about STEM, and the Alberta Outreach Team’s Workshop on Research in High School. In this workshop, the team and I provided information about the main aspects of a research project. We then provided invaluable insights from our own experiences conducting research and how that impacted our high school experiences and intended career paths. I also contribute to the community through my non-profit organization Project SciCorp, which I use to inspire innovation and creativity through teaching entrepreneurship concepts to high school students. Being mainly digital, increasing accessibility, we use our social media platforms to teach fun facts and useful information, post inspiring quotes, and provide fun educational quizzes. We also provide students with further opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship and other topics through our virtual events. Through these and all my other endeavours, my ultimate goal is to inspire and inform individuals–which is magnified by digital tools. Personally, I also strive to learn from the countless resources, individuals, and stories that are all within the click of a mouse.
Ayush Shah
Graduated from SATEC @ WA Porter Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario.
Attending University of Waterloo, Systems Design Engineering
As a part of the Junior Achievement Company Program led by Deloitte, I had the opportunity to work with like-minded students to create, run and liquidate a company this past year. After taking into consideration the mental and emotional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student lives, we created Talkz, a podcast that consists of weekly round table conversations regarding Generation Z experiences. We covered topics from heartbreaks to fashion to applying to university and colleges. School was a major part of all of our lives. It allowed us to socialize, kept us busy, empowered us to grow, and looking back, we realized we truly missed our time there. The Talkz podcast was necessary for the students listening to be able to relate to the conversations we had in order to destress, let go of any anxiety, and enjoy the weekend ahead! It was not only helpful to the listeners, but also to us, as students hosting the podcast, because we were able to voice our thoughts, our opinions and have them reach a large number of students not only in Canada, but globally. As the Executive Vice President of Product and Technology, I held the responsibilities to lead our team through the creation of our podcast episodes including recording, editing, and publishing. Talkzzz’s Instagram has over 300 followers, and our episodes reached well over 250 views on Spotify, including viewers from Canada, United States, Philippines, Germany and parts of Europe. It is safe to say that our podcast has made a huge impact in the Gen Z community!
Jenny Phung
Graduated from Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario
Attending University of Toronto, Life Science
Necessity is the mother of invention. For there to be progress, one must be innovative and creative. At my school, there was a need for students to explore the STEM field outside of the classroom setting as there were not many opportunities present at the time. As chapter head, I hosted weekly meetings on Google Meet to discuss scientific concepts such as electrochemistry and forces, as well as skills development where members gained insight into topics like studying and scholarships. Moreover, the chapter also provided an opportunity for older members to mentor the younger members by providing them with advice on school and life. Additionally, the chapter addressed the importance of scientific literacy, as well as addressed some concerns that the students had about studying and preparing for post-secondary education. Furthermore, it allowed members to be more innovative and creative by providing them with the opportunity to participate in STEM Fellowship events, such as the Big Data Challenge. The project was important because it allowed students to build a community through their love of science. Through this community, they developed and grew their understanding and passion for the sciences while also improving their skills and confidence. It was also a safe space for students of junior grades to ask questions and have fun while learning. Ultimately, this chapter addresses the need for more scientific opportunities by creating a community that enhances the members’ passion and understanding of science. In the future, I hope that this chapter will continue to inspire more students to develop a passion for science and become more creative and innovative.
Eric Chen
Graduate from Earl Haig Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario
Attending University of Toronto, Engineering
Firstly, I would like to dedicate the success of the Earl Haig STEM Fellowship chapter to my co-presidents, executive team, and staff supervisor! STEM is filled with endless world-changing possibilities and potential. During my time as chapter head, we established a platform for students from all grades to discuss the newest discoveries, issues, and challenges in the field. Our year-long guest speaker series included visits from CEOs, Product Managers, AI/Blockchain Engineers who introduced our younger audience to their industries and gave graduating students crucial post-secondary advice. With these events, we inspired a great number of students to explore this innovative field. Throughout the year, we also provided workshops and mentorship for participants of the STEM Fellowship Big Data Challenge, where four Earl Haig teams reached the final stage, and two received monetary awards! I’m very proud of our talented students and am eager to see the continuing growth of this chapter next year!
Somesh Karthi
Graduated from Harold M. Brathwaite Secondary School, Brampton, Ontario
Attending University of Toronto, Computer Engineering
As the co-founder of HB Hack Club at my high school, I am passionate about solving problems with technology and teaching younger students about STEM. I revamped the school’s original coding club to now accommodate over 90 members virtually and I have even introduced new award tiers and prizes to keep students motivated. In the community, I have worked with Sheridan College’s EDGE Entrepreneurship Program to create a mock company for co-op students to join and help design a web app that helps users park efficiently in congested areas. In addition, I have had loads of fun in hackathons by creating software-based app ideas, which includes an app that tells the user what Indigenous territory they are standing on as well as an app that acts as a social media platform for gardeners.
Joshua Scrpcaru
Graduated from Earl Haig Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario
Attending University of Waterloo, Mechatronics
As chapter head for my school, I taught students how to write papers and help Big Data Challenge teams perform well in my school. I mentored teams by giving them advice from what I learned participating in the contest the previous year.
Leo Tao
Graduated from Earl Haig Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario
Attending University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, Mathematics
While the pandemic proved to be challenging for all students alike, students continued to be passionate about the opportunities STEM Fellowship offered. Instead of seeing social distancing as an obstacle, my fellow chapter heads and I created the infrastructure for online cooperation and continued inspiration in STEM-related activities.
