YOUTH ARE AWESOME
Youth Are Awesome, commonly referred to as YAA, is a blog written by youth for youth. YAA provides the youth of Calgary a place to amplify their voices and perspectives on what is happening around them. Youth Are Awesome is a program of Youth Central.
Any views or opinions expressed on this blog belong solely to the author and do not represent those of people or organizations that the blog may be associated with, unless explicitly stated. All content is for informational purposes only.
After a long day
My biggest anticipation
Is that sweet savory after school sandwich
With a bottle of chocolate milk
I reach into the bag
And pull out the base of my tasty treat
I flip the bread over
And my nightmare begins
On the corner of my beloved future sandwich
Lies a green stain
Fuzzy and smelly
Sickly and savoury
My sandwich suddenly has a potent
A tang
*hmm*
Still tasty.
Have you ever wondered why we are so interested in horoscopes? I have always thought about this fascinating topic and where our interest in these astrology concepts stem from. At first, I thought it might be influenced by social media as horoscopes and zodiacs are gaining popularity on various social media platforms. However, I realized that many people become interested in astrology to satisfy their curiosity, build connections, and learn more about themselves throughout the process.
I previously mentioned horoscopes and zodiacs, which are both broad concepts under astrology. The simplest definition of astrology would be the practice of determining significant events and their meanings by observing the stars, the Sun, the Moon, and the planets. It also involves predicting how these celestial bodies impact human life. These observations come by interpreting constellations, the orbits and movements of planets. It also requires considering the changes happening in the world of fire, water, air, and earth. Furthermore, the original purpose of astrology was to give one insight into events that might occur in their life. Additionally, astronomy has immense cultural significance. For decades, omens based on horoscopes and zodiacs have existed in Egypt, India, China, and Greece. Even today, countries such as India value astrology to a very high degree. This can be said as astrology is still widely practiced in Indian society and other places as well.
Now that you know a little bit about astrology, what is the meaning and significance of horoscopes. It is clear that humans have been intrigued by the stars and planets we see in the sky since the beginning of civilization. In the past, the stars and planets have acted as guides for sailors, determined harvest times for ancient civilizations, and became essential aspects of many cultural traditions. Today, horoscopes are charts that determine upcoming life events based on the positions of the planets, the Sun, the Moon, and the zodiacs during a particular time. Your horoscope would consider your birth date, birth time, and twelve intersections known as houses. The houses indicate a specific section of human life. For instance, one house might be about health, and another may be about wealth.
A zodiac is a belt around the heavens that extends from either end of the Earth’s orbit and the Sun’s annual path. Additionally, the Moon and other planets’ paths come within the zodiac. It consists of twelve-star signs that are mainly represented by animal shapes visible as constellations. The word zodiac comes from the Greek word zōdiakos kyklos, meaning the “circle of animals”. You may have heard about zodiac signs such as Aries and Scorpio. The Aries zodiac refers to the ram, and the Scorpio zodiac is the scorpion. It is undeniable that we have gained hope, guidance, and knowledge from looking up at the sky and wondering about the endless possibilities that lie up there. By looking at this perspective, I can see why these topics are once again rising in popularity.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people felt a period of uncertainty, loss of hope, and a desire to try new things. As a result, I think many people became inquisitive about the idea of astrology. Astrology can be seen as truly fascinating because it apparently gives an individual the ability to foresee events that otherwise would have remained unknown. Mysterious phenomena such as this sparks human interest. Now that we have such quick and easy access to the internet, this sense of curiosity is further heightened. Furthermore, platforms like TikTok and Instagram allow content creators to create engaging one minute posts about astrological information. As a result, it becomes a worldwide trending topic. In my eyes, this seems to be the apparent reason behind the interest we have in horoscopes and zodiacs. Also, it is nice to have insight into your future! Astrology makes this is seemingly possible; reinforcing hope and comfort for many individuals who seek change within their life.
High school has always traditionally been in-person, where you can complete your courses and interact with your homies every day. However, many students feel that they would prefer to finish some courses online, especially in this day and age where our high school experiences have been punctuated by Covid-19. If you are one of these students, you have come to the right place!
There are many virtual schools in Alberta, and here are 4 of them:
Vista Virtual School is an online high school that offers courses for 1 – 12 students. Elementary and Junior High courses are generally print-based, with some online courses, whereas Senior High courses are entirely online. All Senior High core classes are offered, as well as languages, CTS courses, CALM, and Work Experience courses.
Students that attend full-time school elsewhere, can take up to 5 credits per school year with Vista, as well as 10 credits during the Summer. Registration during the school year can happen anytime, and the Summer enrollment for 2022, begins on May 1st. You can even register as a full-time student. All classes are asynchronous, with videos by teachers for support.
https://www.vvschool.ca/our-school/welcome/
Golden Hills is an online high school that also offers courses for 1-12 students. A homeschooling option is available for students in Elementary. However, Senior High courses are exclusively online (with the exception of Math 10-3, which is print based). All senior High core classes are offered, as well as CTS courses, Knowledge & Employability, and CALM. Also, all classes are asynchronous.
If you attend a school elsewhere, you can take up to 10 credits per year with Golden Hills Learning Academy.
Each of their summer school courses cost $50 to be enrolled in.
https://www.goldenhillslearningacademy.com/contact
St Paul’s Academy is an online high School that offers courses only for 10-12 students. You may register only up to 5 credits per year with them, however, if you require more credits to graduate, they can be flexible if you contact them. Many courses are offered at St. Paul’s including core courses and CTS courses.
It is worth noting that no diploma courses are offered during the second semester.
Canadian Rockies is a virtual school that offers part-time schooling for 10-12 students. There is not a limit as such as to how many credits you may take per year, but teachers and administrators from the school will talk to you discussing your schedule and your needs.
Some courses that are offered here are core courses, CTS courses, and a variety of social science courses. This is an asynchronous school as well.
https://www.crps.ca/programs/distance-education
Overall, there are many reasons why you should take online school. You have flexibility as to where you can work, when you can work, and you can set your own pace. If you know that you are good learner online, you may want to consider this option. Just remember, don’t overstress yourself out 🙂
Note-taking plays a crucial part in the study. It helps you to remember information and supports your understanding of that information. Of course, there will be your own techniques that work for you, and everyone has different styles of understanding things. However, these 3 note-taking methods are most well known, and well proven that will help you in studying. I hope this information helps you find the note-taking method that works for you.
In the 1950s, Cornell University developed this method. You will organize things by using 3 sections:
The Cornell Method is good for:
-person who want their notes to be very organized and easy to review
-person who want to see major ideas, key points, and concepts quickly
This is one of the easiest and popular way to take notes. It is well known to give proper and clean structures. To take a note in this method, you select key points, and under those key points, you write information(sub-points) more in-depth. Using bullet points for the sub-points will help to distinguish between the main and sub-points more straightforward.
The Outline Method is good for:
-person who wants to see the relationship between main points and sub-points clearly.
-person who wants to reduce their reviewing and editing time.
When the lecture content is intense and hard to understand the relationship between the information, it is best to use the mapping method. You establish relationships between the information by using branches. To start, write the main topic at the top of the paper, and keep dividing it into subtopics on the left and right, and add information for each subtopic as you go down.
The Mapping Method is good for:
-person who wants their information to be visually appealing
-person who wants to detail information in a concise form
Ever since I’ve been in school, there’ve been hundreds and hundreds of lectures and lessons I’ve been forced to listen to. These range from pure fact dropping, to trying to teach us a skill. As someone with an attention issue, it’s always been hard for me to focus on exactly what is happening in front of me. As soon as I get distracted, the lesson leaves my grip. When you miss one connecting piece, everything stops making sense.
There’s a lot of students like me, who get distracted and drop off the lesson, before coming back and having no idea what’s happening. Recently, I think school has fostered a sense of hostility in the fact that it’s extremely hard to ask when you aren’t quite sure what’s happening. Teachers get frustrated if you come to them after class saying you had no clue what was happening, and it’s frankly too embarrassing to speak up during class, because there’s a possibility you are the only one who doesn’t get it. That’s not a feeling we can now circumvent.
After 2 years of online learning, a lot of students have gaps within their learning itself. We miss concept after concept before falling into a pit of despair when we can no longer learn anything, after not having this prior knowledge. That brings us to the question, on how to ask for help, when you have no idea what’s going on.
I think this issue is a lot simpler than often found to be. Teachers don’t favour general questions and therefore you have to shrink the scale of what you’re asking. Find the one word you remember from what is happening around you. Ask about it, ask it’s definition, before inquiring into whatever your teacher answers. Instead of just saying “I have no clue what just happened”, ask a series of questions to figure out what’s happening.
A lot of students are too scared to do this during things like tutorials. If this is your case, the next step is to email the teacher, before googling whatever is giving you grief in an attempt to figure out what’s happening. (ie. biology 20 CRS) for cellular respiration. Having this model when googling, you’re more likely to find exactly what you need to know. My only advice to all students would be to implore your teacher to answer your questions. Your teachers gain nothing from your learning and lose nothing, focus on your future before all social considerations, and that’s how you will set yourself up for success.
Featured Image: https://spauldinggrp.com/expert-level-sample-exam-question-6-revisited/confused-student/
Around 105 First Nations communities lack access to safe, clean drinking water in Canada. These are caused by years of underfunding. The water available contains a high content of metals such as iron and manganese. There are also bacteria such as E.Coli. This also causes extra costs to these communities because many do not trust the water and have to rely on bottled water among a large population.
Over the years, more action is being taken by the government to solve this issue. Since 1995, some groups such as Neskantanga First Nations have been on boil advisory. Since the Liberal government announced in 2015 the goal to eliminate the advisories, attention has been placed on federally funded drinking water systems, which are larger community systems. This is not as efficient as about 73% of people still do not have any clean water to drink from which can spread water-borne diseases.
While many of these people are struggling, there are many people who do not understand the living conditions of some of these people. When there is no clean water present, it is difficult to fulfill basic needs for things such as hygiene. Educating others about the struggles some individuals can face can allow people to donate their time or money towards helping these causes. If we resolve this issue in the country of Canada, we will then be able to help solve the issue of unsafe drinking water internationally.
While there has been some progress made to the issue, it still requires more time and attention. Since 2015, 119 drinking advisories were lifted; however, 41 drinking advisories are left. As time continues, more water-borne illnesses are appearing in some communities, which can impact future generations. Such projects take up to 3-4 years alone. Water is not a luxury, but a necessary human right.
While life gets busy, we often overlook the little things. Many of us have little pockets of gratitude to look at, such as necessities like water. Countries wealthy as Canada should not be facing this issue in this day and age. While these issues cannot be resolved overnight, to help out donating to the cause, reading more about the issue, and helping contribute to solutions can help improve the situations of our fellow Canadians. While not everything can be in our control, educating a person on this issue helps us stay aware of our surroundings and help us see how lucky we are. Small steps can help change the big picture and allow us to help globally as well.
Sources: Featured Image / 1
I’ve latched onto Nature Documentaries since childhood, mainly due to David Attenborough (Who is not in this film). I’m a sucker for incredible cinematography, smooth narration, and the knowledge these documentaries bring to the table. Fantastic Fungi has all of that but also digs deeper, further than just a nature documentary. It was created by Film Maker Louie Schwartzberg, and has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Which doesn’t guarantee quality, but it shows people enjoyed it). So now let’s talk about Fantastic Fungi, a fantastic film about the fantastic world beneath us all.
Fantastic Fungi is a weirdly structured documentary. The initial half is all expectedly about fungi and their general niche in ecosystems. It delves deeper into the world of mushrooms, addressing the interesting biology that occurs at the microscopic level. Of course this isn’t as visually interesting as watching a Predator hunt its prey, but it addresses the nonvisual importance of these organisms.
My favourite part was when the documentary addressed the research ongoing with Fungi in scientific fields. One such topic was the use of fungi to clean up oil spills, where they put fungi into a batch of pollution, and saw fungal life grow and develop from this patch. The main message of this film is that mushrooms could be the foundation to ‘save the world’, medically and non-medically.
The last third or so takes an interesting and more controversial turn into psychedelics, and the use of drugs to approach mental illness. They talk about life-changing experiences using mushrooms, gaining spiritual enlightenment or hope. In talking about the show, I do not advocate for the use of hallucinogenic plants.
Ill first say the initial cinematography is gorgeous. I had never thought a mushroom was beautiful before watching this. The film is complex and educational. They show history and research to target this under-talked about field.
Although controversial, it’s quite intriguing to see them discuss psychedelics, spirituality, and the like. They have the attitude of saying what they believe in.
The breadth of discussion can work as both a positive and negative. They cover a vast array of topics within the film, so it’s not as focused as other nature documentaries about specific life-forms or concepts often are.
I felt as though they could discuss the history more in depth. Many societies have used psychedelic’s previously, culturally and religiously. They did not cover this to the extent I feel they could’ve, especially with the time budget allocated to hallucinogens’.
The portion about psychedelics felt a little off-hand while watching. I wasn’t expecting them to go so deep into it, and thought they would only briefly touch on it since spirituality is less objective and scientific driven as the rest of the film, though it does mention scientific studies. It’s difficult to review the information in the last third because it really depends on your openness to that sort of practice. This portion is very anecdotal experience heavy, and such avocation works to try and convince the viewer to also try hallucinogenic mushrooms, which are illegal in Canada. However, since they address the medical use with these, they also could be saying, “If psychedelics become an effective antidepressant, then you shouldn’t be that afraid of it medically. “
But overall, I think it’s a neat documentary. It’s not a must-watch, but it is an interesting and nuanced documentary that tackles controversial topics, and reveals the important but ‘underrated’ world of mushrooms.
Image Sources: Featured Image/ 1(Louie Schwartzberg Profile)/ 2/ 3
I used to make up a ton of short stories when I was younger, but over time I stopped writing them. Probably because I don’t have that much free time anymore, but also because I feel like I’ve lost some of my creativity. I’ve been writing a lot, but mostly essays, book reports, and so on. Through all this, plus the high amounts of stress students like me endure, I haven’t felt any inspiration to write creatively. Luckily, I’ve come across some TikTok accounts that give some very fun writing prompts. Below I’ve listed some of my favorite ones, and I hope you find at least one that sparks your imagination. Most importantly, when writing these, have fun and let those creative juices flow!
@writing.prompts.for.you
@x.writingprompts
@writingg.promptss
High Intensity Interval Training, commonly known as HIIT, is a form of training where one performs extremely intense work followed by a period of rest. This allows your body to recover before going on to the next exercise, ensuring maximum performance. HIIT has been rapidly growing popular over the past few years. It is no new knowledge that exercise is good for you. However, you may be wondering, what are the benefits of HIIT specifically? Why do we push ourselves to do these intense workouts?
First of all, studies have found that High Intensity Interval Training helps reduce your blood sugar. Research has shown that blood sugar can be significantly lowered by engaging in HIIT workout programs for a duration of less than 12 weeks. Not only that, but it promotes insulin resistance more than regular continuous cardio. This makes it a great workout for those with diabetes.
On the topic of blood, HIIT has also been proved to help reduce your blood pressure, and lower your heart rate. Studies have shown that just 8 weeks of HIIT training reduces your blood pressure more than continuously doing traditional cardio. This is a huge benefit of HIIT, considering that the workout is usually performed for only 20-30 minutes per session.
Another benefit of HIIT is its ability to improve oxygen consumption in a shorter time period than regular endurance training. This allows your muscles to use oxygen much more effectively. This is why HIIT is very popular among many athletes. Studies have shown that 8 weeks of High Intensity Interval Training can increase one’s oxygen consumption by 25%.
Furthermore, HIIT can also help increase your muscle mass. This was found especially prevalent in individuals who were new to training. Not only are you improving your cardiovascular health with HIIT, but you are also gaining muscle in the process. This makes it very beneficial for those who are short on time, as it is similar to cardio and endurance training all in one workout.
For individuals who are trying to lose weight, HIIT may be a very effective choice. HIIT has shown to burn up to 30% more calories than other endurance exercises. Keep in mind that HIIT is also usually performed for a shorter time period as well, meaning that you are able to burn more calories in a shorter amount of time. HIIT has also demonstrated the ability to increase one’s metabolic rate after the workout. It has been researched to show that it increases your metabolic rate after exercising more than jogging and weight training. It also shifts the body’s metabolism to using fats over carbs, meaning that you will be able to burn fat quicker.
So, what are you waiting for? Next time you have thirty minutes to spare, grab your water bottle, mat, and sneakers and give HIIT a try!
Just this month, Bitcoin and Ethereum—two of the most valuable cryptocurrencies—reached all-time highs in prices. The upsurge of cryptocurrencies in recent years has spurred on a new financial ecosystem—one built around blockchain, the same technology used by cryptocurrencies.
Its users call it decentralized finance—DeFi for short—and it promises a financial system without traditional financial institutions, like banks, and other regulations. In essence, DeFi is finance controlled by all yet none of its users.
There are many important innovations in this field of financial technology: DeFi could democratize access to financial resources. It could be more efficient and reliable. Yet it also lacks the regulatory measures that current systems have built over centuries. And that is cause for concern.
To understand DeFi, we have to start by characterizing traditional financial systems—and crucially, how they interact with the “real economy.”
The real economy has to do with workers, goods and their prices—what you buy at the store as a consumer, the labour you provide to an employer. The financial economy sits on top of that, shifting money around from place to place.
However, one of the key contributions of the financial economy is how it can enable activities in the real economy. For example, bonds that a government issues help pay for public projects, capital invested in businesses fund their early development, and mortgages allow homebuyers to make their purchases.
These are all part of the traditional financial ecosystem. People go to banks to take out loans—some institution is part of the process.
This is what DeFi wants to cut out. It aims to “disintermediate” finance.
In traditional finance, individuals have to trust financial institutions like banks and governments. In DeFi, trust naturally comes from “smart contracts” that function due to a community of computers engaged in a blockchain.
This means that finance would act on a more community-based level, with person-to-person contracts enforced by everyone else in that blockchain network. This contrasts with current systems of person-to-institution contracts that rely on trust in a specific institution.
DeFi is expanding day by day. More and more individuals are using—for example—Ethereum to buy and sell goods or to borrow and lend cryptocurrency.
What lies ahead is murky: will governments start recognizing cryptocurrencies as legitimate forms of payment? Or will DeFi and traditional finance merge into what some call “centralized finance”, which uses blockchains for efficiency but lacks decentralization?
Some governments and central banks are even developing their own versions of cryptocurrency. How that will play out in a world where people turn to DeFi explicitly to get away from government interference is still to be seen.
Similarly, DeFi has a level of natural anonymity. It is quite literally just a network of computers with many individual users. Anonymity is often retained, and methods to obscure transactions are prevalent. Although fraud may decrease, DeFi opens the door to increased money laundering. It is more difficult to regulate illegal flows of money as well as underground market transactions.
That could very well be a price that is paid by distancing financial systems from governments and traditional institutions. But it could also mean that governments won’t be willing to readily accept DeFi.
In the end, this is a nascent technology that should be treated with both enthusiasm and care. The innovations here promise many benefits in helping to democratize finance, yet there is still potential for misuse.
Governments will have to reconcile the need to regulate and stabilize the financial economy with the inherent decentralization of DeFi. Regulators have a lot to do in upcoming years.
But maybe—if DeFi becomes what its proponents idealize it to be and government regulators can coexist with the technology—just maybe, we will have a better ecosystem of finance in the future.
Learn More:
Image Sources: Featured
“Disney” this one word includes our childhood, memories, love, and many other things. Disneyworld is a magical place for adults and kids. Disneyworld uses many tricks to help people to have the best time and use more money in Disneyworld. These are ways how Disneyworld psychologically manipulates people to have more financial benefits.
If you take a whiff of the air in Disneyworld, you will normally smell a lovely smell. Thanks to Disneyworld smell pods (a.k.a smellitizers) all around the park. These smellitizers continuously pump the scents, like the smell of fresh popcorn or vanilla. They are usually in bustling areas or particular stores and hidden in the bottom of stores outside small vents and lampposts. This promotes people in hunger and makes them buy foods. Famous stores in Disneyworld use smellitizers and pump the vanilla smells through a vent underneath the window to bring guests. These scents also set off neurons in your brain; some smells make you feel nostalgic, and other smells make you want to eat certain foods. Disneyworld pumps out these smells to stimulate your neurons.
Forced perspective is a technique which employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. Disneyworld uses focused perspective everywhere to give an optical illusion to people to make them think buildings look a lot taller than they actually are. The most known example is the Cinderella castle in Disneyworld. At the time of its construction, any structure taller than 190 feet tall would have required a red, flashing aircraft beacon on top of it. Imagineers capped its height at 189 feet to avoid adding a red light to the top of the castle. Instead, they used forced perspective to make it look larger! The first floor of Cinderella castle is built to scale, while the second story is build smaller. The second story has windows and blocks which are 5/8th the size of the ones on the first floor, and the top spire of the castle is about half the size that it appears to be. Other than Cinderella castle, all buildings in Disneyworld use smaller bricks as they go higher to trick people’s eyes.
Using hot temperatures in Florida, Disneyworld makes you spend more money. People usually go to the shops in Disneyworld to cool off. Disneyworld keeps stores and shops heavily air-conditioned to make it very cold. It helps visitors to cool off, but that’s not the case. Instead, it tricks people into buying specific merchandise from the store. For example, no one would buy Disney sweaters in hot weather. Still, Disneyworld cranks up the air conditioner to make visitors forget how hot it is outside, and it will make them purchase specific merchandise, like sweaters and jackets.
You may notice that Disneyworld is very colourful and bright except for the pavements and walkways. Disneyworld coloured walkways in the dark to attract heat from the Sun, which makes standing in the same place for a long time very uncomfortable that keeps people moving around and stops any traffic jams if people loitered around. So they make sure the dark pavements stay smooth and consistent. Also, when people gain more heat from the dark pavements will drive more people into air-conditioned stores.
We have many things to be thankful for – healthcare workers, family and friends, fulfilled basic needs, and beyond. However, I believe that there is a more intangible phenomenon that we should all show appreciation for in our hectic and busy everyday lives: free time.
It may come often, it may be rare. Whether in high or low concentrations, it’s important to have some time to spare. (rhyme intended)
The important thing to follow when it comes to free time is not to follow anything. Never think that you “wasted” your free time – just appreciate it, because soon enough, it’s likely your mind will go back to work in some way or the other. As long as you’re doing something that you really feel like doing, and not necessarily something you feel like you should be doing, you haven’t wasted any time at all. You have the rest of your life to be doing things you should be doing; in the time you have given yourself as free time, just live. I’m not saying that you should disregard your duties and completely prioritize ‘you time’, but when that ‘you time’ does come, just appreciate it. The best of everything comes in a balance.
In addition, I believe that free time is one of the best forms of therapy. I once read a quote by Casey Neistat – “free time is the enemy of progress.” I couldn’t disagree more. On the contrary, I feel as though free time enables progress. It provides mental relaxation, encourages self-care, gives you something to look forward to, boosts creativity, and most important of all, it makes you happy. If that isn’t progress in itself, I don’t know what is.
In fact, if possible, go find some free time of your own right now. Regardless of your situation in any task you are working on at the moment – whether short term or long term – you have deserved it. It’s inevitable that you will have to do work at some point, and that’s okay. Maybe that’ll even make you appreciate the free time even more. Just make sure you find a balance that works for you. Take some time to focus on you, and everything will be okay. And no matter what, always remember this:
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
– Marthe Troly-Curtin
The under-representation of women in STEM fields is evident in many, if not most countries around the world, including Canada. This is supported by statistics, and in 2016, women only made up 34% of STEM undergraduates in Canada. Furthermore, women only made up 23% of all science and tech workers aged 25-64. These numbers have increased massively over the years, but there is still a long way to go.
Fortunately, there are many opportunities and scholarships popping up across Canadian cities for girls that are interested in having a career in STEM (and by all means, go for it!). Calgary is no exception! Here are some interesting opportunities for High School girls in the Calgary area (some of these opportunities are available online).
Cybermentor is an online STEM mentorship program facilitated by the University of Calgary, that matches female and non-binary youth ages 10-18 to a STEM professional. These professionals will act as their mentors, from September to June. Weekly chats include homework help, discussions about STEM careers, workshops, and building meaningful relationships. One of their key values is inclusion and emphasizes the bridging of the gap that various marginalized communities such as women, Indigenous peoples, Black and Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC), and the LGBTQIA2s+.
The Schulich School of Engineering started this program in 2001, and to this day, over 3000 youth have taken part in this program across 70 Albertan communities.
Website:
https://www.cybermentor.ca/about
According to the statistics, women represent a staggeringly low 5.44% of commercial pilots worldwide. Hence, Air Canada has committed to giving $20,000 per year to women that have been accepted into a post-secondary aviation program within Canada. The maximum that can be given to one student is $5,000. The scholarship is not automatically renewable but needs to be reapplied for each year.
The scholarship is named after Captain Judy Cameron, the first female pilot that was hired by Air Canada in April of 1978. She was also the first woman to graduate from Selkirk College’s Aviation Technology Program in 1975. She was an extremely talented pilot, who showed exceptional leadership and her achievements are an inspiration to women and pilots alike.
For more details and eligibility, please visit:
https://careers.aircanada.com/posts/the-captain-judy-cameron-scholarship
Operation Minerva is a program that is organized by Telus Spark, which is designed to connect students to STEM professionals, similar to Cybermentor. It is a conference held outside of school hours every year, where professionals from various organizations such as ENMAX and the Institute for Research on Exoplanets are invited to mentor girls/non-binary youth in grades 8-9.
This year’s mentors included Ingrida Semenec, Nathalie Ouellette, and Erica Caden.
For more information, please visit Telus Spark Calgary’s website:
https://sparkscience.ca/education/operation-minerva/
The AWSN, with the support of TC Energy, gives $3000 scholarships to ten students each year, who are enrolled in their third to final year in an undergraduate STEM program in Alberta. The students themselves, however, do not need to be residing in Alberta to apply. Applicants are selected through an unbiased and intersectional lens, and the awards are given out in an equitable manner. This process takes into account the obstacles that under-represented groups face, such as gender inequality and limiting stereotypes.
The AWSN’s main focus is “to connect, unite, support and promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs throughout the province”. Their three core pillars are recruitment, retention, and recognition.
To apply for the 2022 year, please visit: https://www.awsn.org/awsn-scholarship
If you are someone that is looking to go into STEM: Go you!! Keep following your dream, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And even if you’re not looking to go into STEM, encourage your family and friends. Support them!
That’s all from me today. Have an awesome one.
I was inspired to write this blog after recently leading cooking projects that had a “Local Food” theme. Currently, local food is a controversial topic. Therefore, my goal with this blog is to shed light on the issue and provide as holistic of a perspective as possible, not state my opinion.
Please note: Most of the information here is from a discussion board from a YVC project in August.
Whether you’re rushing to finish an English essay or simply emailing a friend, typing is a vital skill for us all. Nowadays, we live in a world with computers, phones and a multitude of other technology. Therefore, the ability to type with both speed and accuracy is becoming more important in today’s digital world.
Touch typing is the skill of typing based on muscle memory rather than glancing down at the keyboard. Most importantly, this skill utilizes all of the individual’s fingers unlike the “hunt and peck” method. However, this skill not only requires time, but regular practice. By doing so, our fingers become accustomed to hitting the appropriate key without needing to identify which one it is.
Not only is touch typing a crucial skill for journalists, writers, secretaries and more, but it can serve countless benefits for us all. These include:
Now that we’ve covered the importance of touch typing and its benefits, I want to share some tips on how you can get started.
That’s it! I truly hope this blog helped encourage you to improve your typing speed and accuracy. While this may not come easily for many of us, the key is to keep practicing and be patient with yourself!
