Ten students have been named UBC’s recipients of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship.

Raven Caron, Rowan Zawadzki, Sarvesh Singh, Solenne Le Billon, Xavier Lam, Carlos Georgescu, Emilie Ma, Mina Chong, Mohammed Al-Seragi and Robin Yadav have been named the University of British Columbia’s recipients of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship.

Out of a pool of 350,000 potential candidates across Canada, 1,400 students were nominated. Given the unprecedented challenges we are facing this year in Canada, an additional 50 scholarships are once again being awarded, for a total of 100.

Raven Caron, 18, is a recipient of the $100,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Seycove Secondary in North Vancouver, BC, Caron will be entering the Faculty of Applied Science this fall at UBC. Caron was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as speaking to the Vancouver Board of Trade at age fourteen on Indigenous representation in STEM and business. As well, Caron received a QSEA scholarship from Queens University, where he spent one week on campus learning about their STEM programs while participating in competitive design challenges.

Rowan Zawadzki, 18, is a recipient of the $100,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Gleneagle Secondary in Coquitlam, BC, Zawadzki will be entering the Faculty of Applied Science in Engineering this fall at UBC. Zawadzki was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as completing grade 11 with the top academic student award with his 98% average. He has also developed a computer programming/STEM course for younger students for which he developed and taught the curriculum.

Sarvesh Singh, 18, is a recipient of the $100,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Chinguacousy Secondary in Brampton, Ontario, Singh will be entering the Faculty of Applied Science in Engineering this fall at UBC. Singh was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as founding his startup company ASAP Fix, focused on additive manufacturing and personal device repair. He was also captain of 1104V, a high school robotics team who went on to become Vex Robotics Provincial Champions — finishing sixth in their division at the global competition.

Solenne Le Billon, 17, is a recipient of the $100,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Little Flower Academy in Vancouver, BC, Le Billon will be entering the Faculty of Applied Science in Engineering this fall. Le Billon was selected for her outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as winning a placement at Waterloo’s international Quantum Cryptography School program, studying university-level quantum physics/mathematics for encrypted communications. She is also Founder/CEO of Science Girls Squad, a tech platform that provides unique story-based STEM-focused books for pre-teen girls from underserved communities.

Xavier Lam, 18, is a recipient of the $100,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Point Grey Secondary School in Vancouver, BC, Lam will be entering the Faculty of Applied Science in Engineering this fall at UBC. Lam was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as attending SHAD2020 (virtual), a competitive Canada-wide STEAM and entrepreneurship leadership program, where his team placed in the top five finalists out of 60 in the spaceflight payload design competition. Using machine learning, he has also developed an algorithm to aid in the early detection of skin cancer. Incorporated in an app, it will enable users to self-diagnose themselves from their phones.

Carlos Georgescu, 17, is a recipient of the $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Moscrop Secondary School in Burnaby, BC, Georgescu will be entering the Faculty of Science this fall. Georgescu was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as developing two official iOS apps: VictimConnect and The Global Spotlight. VictimConnect helps sexually harassed victims by providing resources with a platform to connect with other victims. He also attended the UBC hackathon BizHacks. where his team earned first place out of 250 participants for their software application solving supply-chain distribution issues.

Emilie Ma, 15, is a recipient of the $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of the University Transition Program at UBC in Vancouver, Ma will be entering the Faculty of Science program this fall. Ma was selected for her outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as participating in the 2019 Google Code-in, Google’s largest international coding competition for teens, where out of several thousand contestants, she was selected grand prize winner — the youngest ever from Canada. Also, she was selected by the University Transition Program, an academically accelerated program administered by the Ministry of Education and UBC, which prepares a cohort of twenty gifted students to enter UBC at age fifteen.

Mina Chong, 18, is a recipient of the $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Steveston-London Secondary School in Richmond, BC, Chong will be entering the Faculty of Science this fall. Chong was selected for her outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as completing an extensive research project with Dr. Judy Needham of the Canadian Trials Network and authoring an informed consent form that studied the combination chemotherapy of bacterial infections. Chong was also recognized by the Honourable Alice Wong (MP Richmond Centre) when she received the Public Engagement Award for her work in educating younger students and the general public about sustainability and other STEM topics.

Mohammed Al-Seragi, 18, is a recipient of the $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Britannia Secondary School in Vancouver, BC, Al-Seragi will be entering the Faculty of Science this fall. Al-Seragi was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as being a Gold Medalist at the 2018 Regional BC Science Fair and Silver Medalist at the 2018 Canada-Wide Science Fair, as a representative of Team British Columbia. He is also an avid marathon runner, competing in both the Seattle and BMO Vancouver marathons, as well as two other half marathons.

Robin Yadav, 18, is a recipient of the $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. A graduate of Queen Elizabeth Secondary in Surrey, BC, Yadav will be entering the Faculty of Science this fall. Yadav was selected for his outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, such as his innovative firefighting tech, using AI for autonomous wildfire drones, for which he received the Climate Change Resilience Award at the prestigious Youth Science Canada STEM Fair. In the accelerated district program, Yadav used his passion for math to complete Pre-Calculus 12 by grade 9 and place in the top 25% of students nationwide.

“We are proud to celebrate 10 years of Schulich Leader Scholarships, the premiere STEM scholarship program in Canada and the world. This group of 100 outstanding students will represent the best and brightest Canada has to offer and will make great contributions to society, both on a national and global scale. With their university expenses covered, they can focus their time on their studies, research projects, extracurriculars, and entrepreneurial ventures. They are the next generation of entrepreneurial-minded, technology innovators,” says program founder Seymour Schulich.

About Schulich Leader Scholarships Canada

Recognizing the increasing importance and impact that STEM disciplines will have on the prosperity of future generations, businessman and philanthropist Seymour Schulich established this $100+ million scholarship fund in 2012 to encourage our best and brightest students to become Schulich Leader Scholars: the next generation of entrepreneurial-minded, technology innovators.

Through The Schulich Foundation, these prestigious entrance scholarships are awarded to 100 high school graduates this year, enrolling in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) undergraduate program at 20 partner universities in Canada. Every high school in Canada can submit one Schulich Leader Nominee per academic year based on academic excellence in STEM, entrepreneurial leadership and financial need.

About UBC

The University of British Columbia is a global center for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. Since 1915, UBC’s entrepreneurial spirit has embraced innovation and challenged the status quo. UBC encourages its students, staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning. At UBC, bold thinking is given a place to develop into ideas that can change the world.