David Li and Jason Huang
The Project: Fraser Connect is a pilot project aimed at helping students engage with their school community. In particular, the various clubs and events that their schools would be running. Students have the ability to view feeds of daily announcements, events, and even vote for their student council through the app. The app will improve engagement rates and reduce the valuable time wasted through traditional announcements over the school intercom.
David is a rising junior at John Fraser Secondary School. He has a passion for business, education, and software development and wants to take his abilities to improve the lives of students in any way possible. For the past two years, David has worked as a software developer building internal applications (and the odd public-facing app) for small to medium sized businesses – transferring that knowledge and passion into his school community by creating a 3D printing program and a hack-a-thon. Outside of school and work, he stays active by playing tennis and table tennis.
Jason Huang is a high school student at John Fraser. He has been programming since middle school, and has worked on everything from web-based Android apps to console-based utilities. Jason started his school’s 3D Printing Club alongside David, and has continued introducing up-and-coming technologies to their school. He was also one of the founding members of the school’s VEX Robotics team, and has competed for the past two years. Jason is also a big fan of Linux and open source software. He hopes to study either computer science or engineering in university. Aside from technology, Jason loves to ski and bike.
Ethan Cho
The Project: Planning to make a drone capable of delivering packages manually and autonomously using GPS. Also hoping to make the drone do certain tasks using hand gestures; allowing user to communicate with the drone using hand gestures to control it.
Ethan Cho is a student attending Mcmaster University and studying in Btech Automotive stream. He is very ambitious and always loves to push himself to learn more.
Arushi Wadhwa, Alice Chen, and Stephanie Xiang
The Project: Public speaking is consistently ranked the primary fear amongst children, teenagers, and adults. The goal is to help students develop effective communication skills while fostering confidence and creativity. Aratio is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting public speaking in youth through three mediums: an interactive website which allows students to upload videos for feedback, workshops to teach the different components of public speaking, and an annual public speaking tournament where students can test their new skills in a supportive and competitive environment.
Arushi Wadhwa will be attending McMaster University for Life Science starting in the fall. Her interest in public speaking came from the activities she participated in while attending White Oaks Secondary School, which I recently graduated from under the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Arushi was an active member of her school’s DECA chapter, competing at DECA internationals twice and placing third in 2019, along with placing 7th at FBLA internationals. She also helped coach others in public speaking, while developing her own skills through different competitions. Throughout these experiences, she began to understand the importance of proper communications skills and the impact it has on our academic and career goals, which is why she founded this organization.
Alice Chen is a Grade 12 student in the International Baccalaureate program at White Oaks Secondary School. She’s been deeply involved in activism, public speaking, and community service throughout the past few years. She has won international recognition for her participation in debate and business conferences, including 3rd place at DECA Internationals, 7th place at FBLA Internationals, and 5th speaker at the Harvard World Schools Debating Championships. As president of White Oaks DECA and White Oaks Debate, she has transitioned to focus more on coaching younger students with their communication skills. Alice first recognized the importance of student voice while serving on Ontario’s Ministry’s Student Advisory Council, and worked alongside Arushi to foster interest in oratory arts by organizing a speech arts tournament for elementary students. Recognizing the transformative opportunities a confident voice can provide, Alice hopes to use this fellowship to further empower students to speak up.
Steph is a Grade 11 IB student at White Oaks Secondary. She hopes to study either computer science or business management in post-secondary. Being honest, all three sciences terrify Steph, so arts and humanities are the only options here. Her passions lie in graphic design and visual arts, which is really just a roundabout way of saying that most of her time is spent on Behance (crying over pretty posters), Illustrator, or Photoshop.