Five Shad Valley alumni receive TD Canada Trust Scholarships

Shad Valley is very pleased to congratulate our alumni who secured five of 20 available TD Canada Trust Scholarships for Community Leadership this year. There were 60 finalists across the country, many of them also Shad alumni.

Our five alumni recipients for 2009 are:

Eden Full (See the blog entry directly below this one to read a story on Eden)
2008 Shad Valley Trent
Hometown: Calgary, AB

Vijay Jeyapalan
2008 Shad Valley Dalhousie
Hometown: Markham, ON

Vino Jeyapalan
2008 Shad Valley University of New Brunswick
Hometown: Markham, ON

Rebecca Reiss
2008 Shad Valley McMaster
Hometown: Surrey, BC

Mauricio Ruiz
2008 Shad Valley Carleton
Hometown: Whitehorse, Yukon

The TD Canada Trust Scholarships, valued at $70,000, are awarded to outstanding young Canadians who have made a difference in their community. Last year, two Shad alumni received this award and two alumni were also awarded in 2007.

Shad Valley would also like to acknowledge and thank TD Bank Financial Group for their long-term support of the Shad Valley program, through funding and internships.

To learn more about the TD Canada Trust Scholarships, please visit their website. This year’s recipients should be posted soon.

Shad Valley alumni named recipients of the Top 20 Under 20

Shad Valley is very pleased to congratulate four alumni who are 2009 Top 20 Under 20 honourees. Beth Ferreira, 2008 Shad Valley Memorial; Alex Shipillo, 2005 Shad Valley Memorial; Michael Xu, 2008 Shad Valley Queen's; and Xingyu Zhou, 2008 Shad Valley McMaster, are recipients of this tremendous award, announced June 3.

Beth Ferreira, from Winnipeg MB, first began volunteering at Fisheries and Oceans Canada at age 14. Now 17, Beth has conducted hundreds of hours of research, primarily focusing on less-invasive methods to test animal tissue. Winning recognition on the national stage, Beth loves to share her passion and inspire others.

Alex Shipillo, 19, is from Vancouver BC. His work with Impact Entrepreneurship group (founded by Shad alumnus Kunal Gupta in 2004) inspired him to start two major youth-oriented projects. The first, Youth Canada, offers an online resource for students interested in education and entrepreneurship. The second, Impact's Microcredit Competition, encourages social entrepreneurship among high school students through a weeklong competition to raise funds for charity.

Michael Xu, from Kanata, Ontario, founded Vestige Gear in 2008, an online, registered corporation that is a channel for collaborative, youth-generated ideas and designs. Now 17, Michael worked tirelessly to market two shoe models and sell over two hundred in ten countries. Vestige reached its goal of raising $20,000 for an all girl's school in Kenya. Funds will be used for education and clean water initiatives.

Xingyu Zhou, Shad's youngest Top 20 recipient, is only 16 but she has already worked tirelessly to discover medical related uses for tree bark in her hometown of Saskatoon SK. Traveling to the north of the province, Xingyu's work has led to findings for potential cancer-treating medicines. Her two-year project is recognized as one "with the most commercial potential" by the Monsanto Commercialization Award and received a silver medal at the Canada Wide Science Fair in 2007.

All recipients receive $5,000 towards university studies, participation in a 4-day leadership summit in Toronto and many other benefits.

The Top 20 Under 20 award rewards youth who display a significant level of innovation, leadership and achievement. A primary requirement is that their leadership and innovation has improved their school, community, province and/or country. 42 finalists are selected and 20 recipients are chosen.

To learn more, please click here and for a complete list of this year's winners, click here.

Shad alumni receive National Millennium Entrance Award

Shad Valley is very pleased to congratulate alumni who recently received Canadian Millennium Scholarship Entrance Awards. Over 1000 awards are given in three separate categories: local, provincial, and national. Recipients at the national level receive a $25,000 award towards their undergraduate education.

This year, over 70 Shad Valley alumni were recipients . Shad’s 13 national winners are listed below; click here to see a list of all recipients.

Adil Adatia, 2008 Shad McMaster
Eric Coomes, 2007 Shad Memorial
Sophia Dhalla, 2008 Shad McMaster
Elizabeth Ferreira, 2008 Shad Memorial
Eden Full, 2008 Shad Trent
Teal Kreuger, 2008 Shad Waterloo
Conor Kyte, 2008 Shad Laval
Lauren Long, 2009 Shad Carleton
Amy Nadeem, 2008 Shad Waterloo
Mauricio Ruiz, 2008 Shad Carleton
Sonya Wadhera, 2008 Shad Queens
Siqi Xue, 2008 Shad Memorial
Emily Yorke, 2008 Shad Laval