What happens when the brightest high school students from across Canada come together in the spirit of science, innovation and entrepreneurship? You get new and inventive advancements and solutions for a wide variety complex issues, thanks to SHAD, which empowers students focused on STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) with lectures, workshops, projects and activities. More than 600 students from across Canada attend the month-long summer program, in-residence at one of 12 Canadian universities, including Western.
More than 50 of Canada’s top high school student recently wrapped up a month’s stay at Perth Hall where they showcased innovative ideas on food security. One of the Western teams explained their ‘Locally Thrown’ idea, where so-called ‘ugly’ or ‘misshapen’ fruits and vegetables, normally thrown away or turned into animal feed, are instead processed for elementary schools or low income families.
Showing off their idea are, from left, Bill Shu of Markham; Pascal Voyer-Nguyen of Montreal; Kaila Sherratt of Georgetown; Taylor Shirtliff-Hinds of Toronto; and Bre Tilley of Newfoundland.
There are currently more than 14,800 SHAD alumni, including Rhodes Scholars, Top 40 Under 40 and Top 20 Under 20 award recipients. SHAD, founded in 1980, is based in Waterloo.