Enver Creek Secondary student wins $70,000 TD Canada Trust scholarship
An Enver Creek Secondary student is one of this year’s winners of the TD Scholarships for Community Leadership.
Grade 12 student Hemanya Sharma was named one of just 20 recipients across Canada to receive the $70,000 scholarship, which is awarded annually by TD Canada Trust to students who have supported positive change in their communities.
On top of being president of Enver Creek’s Multicultural Club, where she worked to raise awareness of cultural issues and work against discrimination, Sharma was recognized for founding the We Can STEM program, an after-school initiative aimed at helping young girls develop an interest science, technology engineering and math.
“The reason I started the program is because when I was in Grade 9 I took my first robotics course and saw there were only three other girls in the class,” said Sharma. “After that I discovered that it wasn’t only my class, but nationally and internationally, there weren’t a lot girls going into these types of programs.”
Sharma set out to make a change and came up with a plan to create an after-school program that would offer girls the chance to get a head-start on STEM learning opportunities outside of their regular curricula.
Sharma’s interest in STEM was first sparked at a robotics camp in Grade 5 – another reason she saw her after-school program as an opportunity to pay it forward.
“I realized a lot of girls don’t have those kinds of opportunities because their parents might not be able to commit the time or afford to put them into special programs, so I wanted to do something that would make that type of opportunity accessible to anyone.”
Working with teachers to get the club started, Sharma recruited a few classmates to help with the teaching, and they began the sessions in 2021 for students from nearby elementary schools.
Enver Creek Secondary student Hemanya Sharma (front row, second from right) with members of the We Can STEM program she established.
“We filled up right away and had to have a waitlist, which was really cool to see,” she recalled.
Sharma said the program focuses primarily on teaching the girls basic coding, exploring space and other science and technology topics that they can build upon.
“We have them do problem-solving and a lot of collaborative projects and it’s really cool seeing them apply a concept and just work together towards a solution.”
Sharma plans to stick with STEM and will put her scholarship to good use this fall at the University of British Columbia, where she’ll pursue a degree in engineering.
“I’m grateful to my parents for that early opportunity because it’s something that’s so fun to me,” she said. “Since that early involvement I’ve realized that engineering is like the collaboration of technology and wanting to help people, which is definitely a passion of mine.”
Congratulations and good luck at UBC, Hemanya!
