About Me
My name is Calla Renaud and I am a grade 12 student working on my capstone project. I am involved in many groups at school, such as Choir, Yearbook, and GSA. I am passionate about how human rights are being affected in our community. I also enjoy helping people, especially students, achieve their goals. For my project, I explored ways that I, as a teenage high school student, can make a difference in a fellow student's life. I really wanted to be able to help a student who is dedicated to succeeding in life but can't quite get there. So the first step was to figure out how...
The Question
How can I help give someone in need an education further than high school?
So to start my project, I had to identify a problem I saw. It had to be a problem that I could help out with. I realized that a lot of students cannot afford to attend post-secondary education. Of course, this could include tuition for university or college, but also a trades school or any other program that could lead to a career the student is passionate about pursuing.
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I decided that to answer this question I could start a bursary fund and award it to a dedicated student who is experiencing some bumps in the finance aspect of school. Originally, I had brainstormed that the way I would raise money would be with a movie night. However, after some planning, due to COVID-19 this wasn't possible. I went back to the drawing board and came up with some more ideas. I was kind of set on an event, but the pandemic had other plans. So I landed on a Christmas bake sale. Who doesn't love cookies right? I had to come up with a solid plan because I knew there might be obstacles ahead. I decided to set up an online order form to eliminate the need for a physical venue to sell the cookies. This bake sale is the perfect way to fundraise for the bursary since it is right around Christmas. I have also included a GoFundMe as another way to raise money.
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When deciding how to award the bursary, I considered doing it through an organization. However, I wouldn't have as much control as doing it myself. Doing it through my own website, allows me to select the winner based on the criteria that I feel is important to the project. I am looking forward to awarding this money to a deserving grade 12 student in the Langley School District. I will be announcing the recipient of the bursary on January 11th, 2022.