SHAD Program
Excerpt from Debates of the Senate (Hansard)
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
SENATORS’ STATEMENTS
SHAD Program
Hon. Marty Deacon: Good afternoon, honourable senators. Today I rise to welcome and share the arrival of the leadership team and student alumni of SHAD to the Senate of Canada.
SHAD is an organization you might all like to know about. It is an award-winning enrichment and entrepreneur program, and network, that empowers exceptional high school students at a pivotal point in their secondary education. Each student will have the opportunity to recognize their own capabilities and envision their extraordinary potential as tomorrow’s leaders, disruptors and change-makers.
How does SHAD do this? Each year, SHAD provides the opportunity for more than 900 students from across Canada and internationally to attend their STEAM-based — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — month-long program. That is 30 days of amazing young people challenging each other, away from home, and truly having the opportunity to take risks and make mistakes while learning.
Each student visits a new part of Canada, experiences life at university and even learns how to found a start-up.
I have attended SHAD before. It is an academic, leadership and high-energy magical mix.
These high school students are in residence in one of your Canada host universities. When finished, these students become part of an impressive SHAD network. I have spoken to students whose academic lives were changed by this experience over 25 years ago. This student network now totals 16,300 students, including 32 Rhodes Scholars, 44 Schulich Leaders, 88 Loran Scholars, as well as prominent entrepreneurs, industry leaders and accomplished professionals.
SHAD started 38 years ago. I recall well providing a young student in 1980 with her first letter of support. SHAD is based in my home community of Waterloo, Ontario.
SHAD demonstrates care and inclusion for all Canadians, something every senator thinks about. SHAD utilizes funding to underserved communities from coast to coast to coast. They work in Indigenous, rural, remote and inner-city communities, leaving no stone unturned for our young Canadians.
They are early in this part of their work, with the goal of this award-winning enrichment and entrepreneurship program to fully mirror, represent and include all corners of this vast country and to support students who would not otherwise be part of this.
As senators, we thank SHAD and the Government of Canada in supporting this work.
SHAD leaders and ambassadors are on the Hill. Please come and meet these fine young people at a reception at 5 p.m. on the second floor here in the Senate Banking Room.