Shad Valley alumna featured in Chatelaine Magazine

Shad Valley alumna Elaine Chong, UBC 1994, is featured in the March 2009 edition of Chatelaine magazine for her extraordinary work with the B.C. Ministry of Health.

Elaine studied at UBC, earning both her Honours BSc and PhD at the university. In 2008 she was recognized as a Future Leader by the Women’s Executive Network of Canada at their annual Top 100 Women in Canada gala. Her story was also seen in the Globe and Mail last November.

Elaine is certainly a Shad Valley alumna to watch as she strives to empower women’s health care. This summer will mark her fifteenth anniversary since attending Shad Valley. Congratulations to Elaine on her continued success!

The following story features Shad Valley alumna, Elaine Chong, in Chatelaine’s March 2009 edition as one of five women who are ‘Making a Change’ in health care:

Elaine Chong
Pharmacist and acting director at the B.C. Ministry of Health Services, 32, Vancouver

As a girl in Trail, B.C. – a small town where, she jokes, half the 40 Asian residents were relatives – Elaine Chong acted as an interpreter in the doctor’s office for her Chinese grandmothers. Like some other recent immigrants, they’d never learned to speak or read English, so it fell to their young granddaughter to assist with their medical care. Today, the Vancouver pharmacist (the first in her family to earn a university degree) is on a mission to help other immigrants get the health care they deserve.

Why her work matters so much:
Immigrant women are much less likely to have family doctors

than Canadian Born women are

While finishing her post-doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, Chong worked with the Asian Women’s Health Clinic. Staffed by multilingual female doctors, the clinic screens for breast and cervical cancers – Asian women in B.C. suffer from the latter at almost four times the rate of white women. This is often due to a reluctance to undergo intimate exams, and though Chong is encouraged by women who “take charge of their health care in their own language and culture,” she worries about those “who are lost to the system.”

Now an acting director for the B.C. Ministry of Health Services, Chong works with a team of pharmacists who advise doctors about the best drug treatments for their patients. But her goals reflect her roots: “I think it’s so important for women to be educated about their medications and conditions, and to be empowered in their own health.”

Article by Elaine O’Connor, Chatelaine March 2009, p. 160

Shad Valley & Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Shad Valley was recently featured in a news release from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador:

Municipal Affairs
December 17, 2008

The following statement was issued by the Honourable Dianne Whalen, Minister of Municipal Affairs. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

Congratulations to Shad Valley Students on Recent Award

This summer, the Department of Municipal Affairs was honoured to provide a four-week summer internship to five students with the Shad Valley program.

...

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate two of our students - Alex Abbott and Ankur Ralhan – on recently being named RBC / Shad Valley Entrepreneurial Cup winners. This award acknowledges the innovative spirit, youthful exuberance and leadership skills of Shad Valley students. The competition is a showcase for entrepreneurship, science, engineering and technology and demonstrates what teams of bright students can create with a little opportunity and a lot of passion.

Read the full press release at http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/ma/1217n05.htm.

Springdale's Mike Rolfe earns national honours: Shad Valley 'great experience'

10/30/08

SPRINGDALE
WILLIAM CLARKE
nor'wester

Mike Rolfe has had a busy year. The 17-year-old grade 12 student at Indian River High has been kept busy by his love of sports, but his academics have also remained top-notch. This month he'll be hosting a hockey camp at the Springdale Stadium and this past summer he spent some time in Halifax and Kitchener-Waterloo for an important reason.

Mike was one of the students accepted into a competition for high-achieving students called Shad Valley. Not only did he participate, his team won the national honours against 12 other teams across the country.

"We all had to make a project and the project was to design with conscience and make something that will help others in the world," he said. "We won the national competition and best overall."

Read the full story from The Nor'wester at
http://www.thenorwester.ca/index.cfm?sid=185607&sc=354

Shad Valley Responds to Current Economic Concerns

Shad is keeping a close eye on the current economic climate and its potential impacts on the Shad Valley program. On careful consideration of Shad’s options, our Board of Directors and I concluded that it is prudent to take action immediately to reduce our scale and cost of operation rather than risk jeopardizing the sustainability of Shad Valley in the long term. For 2009, we’ve reduced the number of Shad Valley programs to 10 from 12. Shad Valley Trent and Shad Valley Calgary will not be offered in 2009. We have made a number of changes to our internal staffing and operations as well, to ensure we’re positioned for the challenges ahead.

Shad has the enormous responsibility each year of carefully managing the financial resources provided to us by our many partners, so that we can achieve our core mission of enhancing Canada’s innovation and entrepreneurial capacity. Our partners include our students, their parents, governments, corporations and our host universities. Although the tough decisions we have had to make are very painful for all members of the Shad community, we are committed to stewarding our resources to ensure that this great program will continue to thrive and be successful in executing its mission in the future.

Barry Bisson, President

Attention Shad Valley Alumni!

Would you like to share your Shad Valley experience with others? Do you know students who would benefit from Shad Valley? Would you like a chance to win a $2,500 university scholarship?

Then sign up to be an alumni ambassador!
Visit this link to find out more, or contact Melanie@shad.ca

We're counting on you to talk to students about Shad Valley!

Alumni Ambassadors are able to:

Visit local high schools to talk about Shad Valley!
Attend conferences and events on behalf of Shad Valley!
Have a chance to win a $2,500 university scholarship!

SIGN UP NOW!
Fill out the ambassador form: click here
You can also refer your friends to the Shad Valley 2009 application: click here
Learn more about the $2,500 university scholarship!

Prime Minister’s Award Winner Shares Teaching Talents at Shad Valley Program

*This article is featured in the Fall 2008 publication of Canadian Teacher Magazine

Many high school students consider June the best and worst month of the year. On the one hand, it’s warm and sunny and the long exhausting school year is drawing to a close. On the other hand, it’s warm and sunny and the long exhausting school year never seems to end quickly enough! By that time, university students are out of class, and not only are students’ feet off the academic gas pedal, they’re out of the car. There is one condolence though – teachers have to stay in school even longer. It’s no wonder students often assume that teachers, too, cannot wait for their glorious two months off and away from teaching. Of course, most students have never met Ian Fogarty.

At Riverview High School, Ian Fogarty spends ten months of the school year immersed in science, teaching grade 11 and grade 12 students chemistry and physics. While science is a discipline with curiosity and self-motivation at its core, it’s often difficult to get students excited about raisin bun atom models or solubility rules. Facing this challenge every day, Ian teaches the fundamental basis of his subjects with the hope that he can spark a passion for science in his students.

In 2006 while teaching at Riverview high, Ian’s childhood high school in New Brunswick, he was offered a position as a faculty member at a summer enrichment program called Shad Valley. As a Shad Valley Teaching Fellow, he was already encouraging students from his high school to attend the program, and his enthusiasm for the program was growing. “When I was first offered a place at Shad Valley, I knew immediately that this was not going to be like a typical month of school,” Ian recalls. “Shad Valley clicked with me: here was a place where students were challenged and immersed in ideas that most don’t encounter until their undergraduate studies! I saw a program for high school students that prepared them for real life.”

Happily, Ian accepted the spot at the Trent University Shad Valley campus in Peterborough, Ontario. There, he helped run the intense four-week science, technology, and engineering enrichment program that recruits approximately 630 bright students nation-wide every year. Ian found himself once again surrounded by high school students for the entire month of July – not a typical holiday, but he was eager to immerse himself in all things Shad.

“Shad Valley students are creative, passionate, and driven. Their days are filled to capacity with challenging and creative projects and the quality of work they produced truly surprised me. I have taught under the notion that every student out there has tremendous potential, and Shad proved to me that there is a place where this potential can be reached and harnessed.”
Ian Fogarty, Program Director, Shad Valley UNB

Shad Valley Trent is one of twelve universities that hosts the program every July. For the past 28 years, students from across Canada and across the world have taken part in this life-changing, mind expanding adventure. This past July, Ian returned to Shad Valley again, but this time in his native New Brunswick.

As a Program Co-Director at the University of New Brunswick Shad Valley campus, Ian was able draw on his own experiences to build a challenging program. After receiving both his Honours BSc and BEd from Mount Allison University, he earned his MSc in Organometallic Chemistry from New Mexico State University, where studies led him to work for a research team at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility.

While he may be perceived as a Chemistry-type Indiana Jones, he has also been an influence for teachers as well. This year Ian was honoured with one of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence. The award recognizes teachers by promoting their innovative and successful teaching practices. In addition, Ian has completed work in the field of chemistry, and was awarded New Brunswick’s Innovation in Education Award. He is also involved outside of the classroom with the Outdoor Challenge Program, for students who are eager to experience an adventure outdoors, including rock climbing, kayaking, and outdoor living. In addition, some of his former students credit Ian’s encouragement towards their academic pursuits in fields such as engineering and chemistry, yet another testament towards his passion for teaching.

Ian’s teaching approach has always been to provide a solid work ethic and to lead by example. “Success is directly proportional to effort,” he has said. At Shad Valley, students are given the chance to take on new challenges, to harness their creative capacity, and to act on their talents to improve innovation in Canada. It is for these, and many other reasons, that Shad Valley has been such an important step in Ian’s professional and personal career. Shad Valley President Barry Bisson explains “Ian is an extraordinary person with a talent for teaching and inspiring youth. His award in excellence is well-deserved and he has worked hard for his achievements.”

“I encourage students who want to learn and challenge themselves to apply for Shad Valley. I also encourage teachers to promote the program to their students – they could change a young person’s future simply by bringing up Shad. Shad is an excellent place for students to receive a competitive advantage,” says Ian.

Indeed, many educational and career institutions consider the Shad Valley program as an investment in a student’s future, and recognize the program when considering applicants for program admissions, scholarships and careers. Shad Valley has over 10,000 alumni, including 18 Rhodes Scholars, several Top 20 Under 20 and Top 40 Under 40 recipients, as well as countless award winners in various career and education fields.

“Shad was very lucky to have Ian as a Program Co-Director this year. He brings to Shad the expertise and drive that students benefit from greatly,” says Barry Bisson, President of Shad Valley.

For Ian, he intends to stay with the Shad Valley program for many years to come. “There is no place I would rather be in July than at Shad Valley,” he said. “I could be on a beach somewhere, but this is much more fun.”

You can learn more by visiting the Shad Valley website, http://www.shad.ca/ or by contacting info@shad.ca.

**

*This article is featured in the Fall 2008 publication of Canadian Teacher Magazine

Shad Valley program opens young minds to science

Few high school students embrace the opportunity to pursue knowledge during their time off in the summer. However, the Shad Valley program attracts an elite kind of student.

Through participation in this international program, exceptional students in Grades 10 to 12 will spend a month living in residence at a Canadian host university and will engage in a summer enrichment program that focuses on the sciences, engineering and entrepreneurship.

"The McMaster Shad Valley program has been helping top students in high school find an edge in the world of academia and research for about 10 years," said Doug Boreham, associate professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences and director of the McMaster Shad Valley program. "It's an adventure that these young high achievers would not be able to benefit from except in a University setting, and it provides exposure to different disciplines for a multi-faceted experience."

This year, the Shad Valley participants will complete a special component, only available at McMaster. The Faculty of Science and the McMaster Shad Valley Program will spend one week prototyping a new Honours Integrated Science (iSci) B.Sc. program that will start in September 2009.

This component of Shad Valley ran from July 10 to 15, during which time the high school students planned a mission to Mars and met Canadian astronaut Dave Williams.

"We hope that we will eventually see some of the Shad Valley students applying to the iSci program," said Carolyn Eyles, professor in the School of Geography & Earth Sciences and chair of the Development and Instructional Committees for iSci. "They are just the kind of extremely focused, high achieving, well rounded students we are looking for in the program."

Eyles continued, "The iSci program is designed to produce students that will be able to understand how scientific thought is created and communicated. Students will be taught by interdisciplinary teams of instructors in laboratory and field settings as well as in lectures, workshops and tutorials. Much of the program content will be taught as thematic modules such as 'Deflecting an Astroid,' or 'Averting a Pandemic.' This thematic approach will allow students to understand the connections between various scientific disciplines and the relevance of science to modern society."

The Shad Valley students were expected to complete the one-week iSci component in much the same way as future iSci undergraduate students, albeit simplified due to the condensed time frame. The students demonstrated their work during a poster competition on July 14 and met Dave Williams, astronaut, physician and director of the new McMaster Centre for Medical Robotics.

"Shad Valley is an excellent enrichment program and it gives us an opportunity to showcase and model the iSci program," said John Capone, dean, Faculty of Science. "The goal of the iSci program is to produce broadly-educated individuals who will have an exceptional level of scientific literacy and will be able to contribute to any modern field of science and beyond."

For more information about the iSci program, please contact Eyles at eylesc@mcmaster.ca or Boreham at boreham@mcmaster.ca.

Lynn Easson-Irvine
McMaster Daily News