A $3,000 grant has given students at École Qayqayt Elementary School the chance to learn a new instrument.
The downtown elementary school recently purchased 30 new ukuleles thanks to the United Way of the Lower Mainland, TD Canada Trust, the Arts Council of New Westminster and Neil Douglas Guitar Shop.
The remainder of the grant money will go toward running an after-school ukulele program at Qayqayt and an after-school drumming program at École Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary School, according to a press release.
Both programs are part of the district’s community schools program.
Three local teens chosen for SHAD summer program
Three New Westminster teens are heading to university this summer to take part in SHAD, an award-winning program meant to foster the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.
For one month, students attend lectures and workshops focused on science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Students are given a theme or social problem and they have to come up with a solution or innovation to address the theme or problem, according to a press release.
New West’s Griffin Wolf, Lincoln Yam and Karina Kramer, all in Grade 11, were among the 801 students chosen to attend this year’s program. Griffin will spend one month at the University of Calgary while Lincoln and Karina will head to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
SHAD is a highly competitive program. Thousands of students apply each year to take part but only the most qualified are chosen. Way to go Griffin, Lincoln and Karina! Best of luck in the future.
A future seed
Kudos to New Westminster native Dawn Chandler who, last month, took part in Huawei’s Seeds for the Future work-study program.
Dawn, a third-year engineering student at Simon Fraser University, was among 20 Canadian university engineer students who travelled to China recently. The trip was part of a program run by Huawei, a global information and communications technology company based in China.
The program is meant to “build connections between Canada and China, promote a greater understanding of career opportunities in the telecommunications sector, and to encourage participation in the international ICT community,” the release noted.
