Fleetwood Park Secondary student wins $120,000 Schulich Leader scholarship

July 27, 2026

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Sarah Ye of Fleetwood Park Secondary is one of this year’s recipients of the Schulich Leader Scholarships, a highly coveted six-figure scholarship for students who demonstrate a passion for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The recent graduate is among only 100 students from across the country selected for a scholarship from Schulich Leaders, receiving $120,000 to pursue engineering in university. More than 350,000 students applied and 1,300 were nominated, with Ye being named a 2026 Schulich Leader – all because of a risk she was willing to take.

“Honestly, I still can’t believe it but I am one of them,” she said. “I only applied because the counsellor sent a message on Teams asking if anyone wanted to be a Schulich Leader nominee.

“People were telling me, ‘If you apply, you might still not get it.’ But I was okay with that – I may as well take that risk and see where it takes me.”

Half of the Schulich Leader scholarships are valued at $120,000 to study engineering and the other half are valued at $100,000 to study science and math.

For Ye, her interest in using assistive technology to help people with disabilities earned her the engineering scholarship, enabling her to pursue higher education in mechanical or biomedical engineering.

“I want to use technology for good,” she said, highlighting her passion for humanitarianism throughout her application. “In my senior year, I did this project where we used computer vision software to detect hand gestures through our laptop camera and control a remote-controlled car.

“That inspired me to consider more ways that technology can help others, and I think that innovation really aligned with the STEM focus of the Schulich foundation.”

Ye’s application also highlighted several other academic accomplishments, including organizing the largest student-run debate competition in the Lower Mainland, learning a valuable life lesson from a coding course and gaining a formative experience in Grade 10 through Shad Canada, a month-long summer STEAM and entrepreneurship program for secondary students.

“I worked on a design project on sustainable energy and we came up with a really unique solution to put turbines into the sewers to harness energy from the rain,” she said. “We won first place in our cohort and I talked about in my application. It demonstrated that I have these entrepreneurship capabilities and that’s something they also look for.

“Then in Grade 11, I took Programming 11 as a prerequisite to another course and it ended up sparking a passion for coding for me. It basically taught me that failure is part of the process – even if you get something wrong, you just have to keep trying to fix it, and it completely changed my mindset, even outside of coding.”

Ye was among the earlier recipients to be notified of her Schulich leadership, receiving an email from Simon Fraser University in late March with an offer to join the Engineering Science program.

“I remember thinking, ‘Is this a really early April Fool’s joke?’” she recalled. “They also gave me a phone call on April Fool’s, which is kind of funny, but it was thankfully all real and I was shocked to hear it was real.”

For Ye, the scholarship has opened more doors beyond going to university. It’s provided the opportunity to be a part of the Schulich Leaders network and the potential to make a greater impact in engineering assistive technology.

“Accepting the scholarship was more than just the obvious large amount of money,” she said. “Every Schulich Leader gets to be a part of these network and go to events and have networking opportunities.

“They also get more direct access into the industry, and that is super valuable for my future.”

Ye joins a growing list of Schulich Leaders from Surrey Schools, including these from the past decade:

Congratulations, Sarah, on being named a 2026 Schulich Leader!