$100K FOR EDUCATION
Future in space engineering
Math comes easy to Jack Wawrow and that’s a good thing since he’ll have to keep tally of the hefty $100,000 scholarship he earned to study space engineering at York University.
Wawrow became the first Holy Names’ student and second student within the Windsor-Essex County District School Board to snag a prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship.
Catholic Central’s Jomanah Chahrour received an $80,000 Schulich award last year for her plans to pursue a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) program. Chahrour planned to study astrophysics at McMaster University.
The Schulich Leaders program awards 50 scholarships annually in Canada, 25 at $100,000 each for those pursuing engineering and 25 at $80,000 each for those pursuing a STEM program. According to the scholarship website, 350,000 teenagers graduate high school in Canada each year and of those, 1,400 were allowed to apply for a Schulich scholarship this year. Philanthropist Seymour Schulich established a $100 million scholarship fund in 2012 “to encourage our best and brightest students to become the next pioneers of global scientific research and innovation.” Wawrow hopes to be one of those pioneers “designing rockets or satellites 10 years from now.”
Of the Grade 12 courses he took this year, Wawrow finished with a 96 per cent average. He accumulated almost 140 hours of community service during his four years at Holy Names and he held lead positions on the school’s robotics team. “I’ve always wanted to do something in the space field,” the 17-year-old said. “Robotics is the main thing that solidified engineering for me.”
Each year, Lisa Polidori sifts through her list of high achievers as the head of guidance at Holy Names, looking for potential scholarship applicants. “And each year I always get a plaque that says thank you to our nominee,” Polidori said. “We’ve never had a winner until now. They’re all great kids, the competition is just ridiculous.” Polidori says Wawrow is “a wellrounded student” with a high level of maturity.
“It can’t just be about marks, I’m guessing his level of maturity must have shined through in his essay and in the other questions they asked,” she said.
Each summer, Wawrow has looked for an educational opportunity to explore. There was an engineering program at Michigan Tech and last year he spent a month at Memorial University in Newfoundland in a summer enrichment program known as SHAD.
He along with 55 other students from across Canada took in lectures, workshops, field trips and had to solve a real-world problem. His team worked on reducing the country’s energy footprint. Wawrow always had the space engineering program at York in mind after high school. “Winning this award takes the entire financial burden off of me now,” he said.
Thirteen other students from across Essex County were among the 1,400 nominees. All 2018 nominees can be found at schulichleaders.com.
I’ve always wanted to do something in the space field. Robotics is the main thing that solidified engineering for me.