Racquel Martin says she knows where she wants to go in life.
The 15-year-old Grade 10 student from Westside Secondary School in Orangeville, Ont. was consistently at the top of her class. She wanted to branch out even further so she signed up for the month-long Shad Valley program. She joined 63 other students from across Canada as well as a few students from Saudi Arabia at Lakehead University Monday for their first meeting.
Racquel said Shad will help to reach her goal of becoming a doctor and looked forward to be around other like-minded people who took that extra step to achieve higher academic success.
"My lifetime dream is to become a doctor or writer," Racquel said. "So when my career gets going I would like to work with Doctors Without Borders and go down to places like Kenya and other places and provide help to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to. People ask why I work so hard and it’s because I know where I am going and I know where I am headed."
The Shad Valley program started 13 years ago as a way to give secondary school students with high academic potential an opportunity to develop their skills. The one-month program has students live in different communities while they work on a project. This year’s theme focused on ways to help Canadian children who have disabilities.
That theme suited Racquel just fine.
"I’m very passionate about that issue," she said. "Sometimes children’s disabilities could be their surroundings. Next year I might be going to Kenya to help some children down there. I feel it is a big issue to make sure that people are given the same education and privileges that kids in North America have."
Abdul AlNamlah, 16, a Grade 11 student from Saudi Arabia, has traveled to Canada and the United States for school before and wrote an exam to qualify for the Shad Valley international program. He said he looked forward to being a part of the program.
"I’ve been lucky to be in this Shad Valley program," Abdul said. "I hope to meet a lot of students and learn different knowledge and different cultures. I hope to get as much as I can get from this experience."
Ken Hartviksen, live-in faculty for Shad Valley, said the program focuses on science, technology, health, mathematics and entrepreneurial skills. The students will have to go in front of a panel of judges and present their idea in a compelling way. The students need to know how to manufacture an idea and sell it to an audience, he said.
"Shad Valley is a program for gifted students," Hartviksen said. "We have all kinds of programs for students who are challenged academically but there are very few opportunities for gifted students in order for them to realize their potential."
