Enriched Experiences

The impact of giving is felt by each student at LFA on a daily basis, but the true transformative power of giving is realized over the course of their entire journey at LFA. One such example is that of our graduating student Janelle Tam ’23. Janelle entered Grade 8 in 2018; right after our major technology campaign helped us establish our state-of-the-art STEAM Lab. Immediately, Janelle was drawn to the lab. Within her first month at LFA, Janelle was already working on advanced robotics projects in her free time. During her lunch breaks Janelle would head straight to the STEAM Lab and under the guidance and supervision of Mr. Chow, work away on microcontrollers, design software, and anything else she could get her hands on. The STEAM Lab represented a space of possibility for Janelle, a place where her imagination could run wild, and with the application of practical design and engineering, her ideas could become reality.

As Janelle’s passion for STEAM developed she began participating in hackathons, engineering competitions, and pursuing summer jobs in IT. Fast forward to senior year and Janelle has found herself at the receiving end of the prestigious Schulich scholarship to attend McGill Engineering. One of the most prestigious STEM scholarships across Canada, the Schulich Scholarship is a full-ride scholarship ($120,000) and is only awarded to a select few students out of an eligibility pool that contains every high school in Canada.

As Janelle prepares to embark on her exciting post-secondary journey, it’s remarkable to see the impact investments in the school can have on a single student. Our technology campaign was a concerted effort to promote STEAM and subjects that historically saw an underrepresentation of women at the post-secondary level. To see our students take to these resources and discover their calling is the greatest reward. In fact, Janelle is not the only Schulich scholar to graduate from LFA, two years prior, Solenne Le Billon ’21 was also awarded the Schulich scholarship to attend UBC. That is two recipients in three years of one of the most competitive and prestigious STEM scholarships in Canada.

The passion and potential of our students is truly limitless, but the value of channeling those qualities with the proper resources cannot be understated. Our students are truly the pride of our school, and helping them realize their full potential and flourish is what drives us. As was the case with Janelle, many students before her, and hopefully many students after her, your support makes a tangible and meaningful impact. We strive to provide an education that encourages each student to discover all that they are called to be. Your support helps us make LFA a school with limitless opportunity – filled with opportunities students have always been looking forward to, and the ones they haven’t discovered yet.