Congratulations Corbyn Gauthier

Congratulations to Corbyn, One of 2022’s ambassador grant winners!

Here are some words from Corbyn about his experience.

“My name is Corbyn and I was the recipient of the Ambassador grant this year. I am writing to you today

to express my deepest gratitude and to provide you with a follow up.

With your help I was able to attend Shad Canada’s 2022 program. Of the 18 universities that participate

in Shad Canada’s program I was given a spot in their program at Carleton University in Ottawa Ontario. I

had never been to Ontario before and I had never taken an airplane so even before I departed I was

excited and nervous.

My journey began on June 28, 2022. Although Shad didn’t begin until July 3 rd I arrived in Ontario a few

days early. I stayed with my grandparents who live in Cambridge Ontario where I had a chance to meet

family over Canada Day weekend and to go to Niagara Falls.

On July 3 rd my grandparents drove me to Carleton University to begin my Shad adventure. I was very

nervous about meeting so many new people but once I checked in with the program coordinators I had

a chance to meet the rest of the participants.

While at Shad I had the opportunity to participate in many different lectures, labs and workshops

presented by experts on a huge range of topics such as:

- Nuclear Waste Management - Investing

- Dark Matter - Biology (dissecting a mouse brain)

- User interface - Biomechtrics

- And many more.

In addition to on campus activities, we had a chance to go camping and we even had the opportunity to

visit our parliament where we had a chance to meet MP Yasir Naqvi.

Of all of the activities I participated in my favorite was a workshop lead my Texas Instruments where I

had a chance to learn more about coding.

Every year, Shad participants take in a Design & Engineering Project where they are given a real world

problem, then in groups Shad’s come up with a solution, make a prototype and business model to

present to a panel of experts. This year DE Project focused on mental health by asking: How do we

encourage the well being of Canadians?

As part of a team of 10 participants, my team came up with an idea called HobbyBox. HobbyBox is a

online subscription service where, based on your answers to a survey, you are sent a new hobby every

month, complete with the history (origin) of the hobby and all materials needed to begin. In addition to

the subscription, people would have the option to sign up for our HobbyBox social platform where you

could meet people who have similar interests. We did market research and financial predictions as well.

You can view our final presentation Here

Attending Shad has been a life changing experience for me. Not only was I able to learn about so many

different STEAM career paths, I made amazing friendships I hope to have for a very long time. Thanks to

your generous support I was able to go outside my comfort zone and I made memories to last a life

time.

Thank you.

Corbyn Gauthier.”