FALL RIVER: Jane Tuttle just had the experience of a lifetime for the past month meeting new friends, learning more about herself and her independence, and about science.
Tuttle was one of approximately 60 students across Canada that spent the better part of the last month at UNB in Fredericton, N.B. as part of the SHAD Program. Tuttle said there was about 20-30 of the youth/students from the GTA area of Toronto, Ont.; a bunch more from Western Canada; and two from the East Coast.
“It was a really cool experience,” said Tuttle during an interview on wing night at the LWF Hall in Fall River on Aug. 3. “I got to meet a lot of really interesting people from all over Canada.
She said the participants all were like minded people, but also had such a diverse skill sets and interests.
The Lockview High student said she got to live on the UNB campus during the past month while attending SHAD. That meant relying more on herself to do things then she had to when living at home with her parents and three sisters in Windsor Junction.
“You more independence as far as you had to rely on yourself to be like, I’m doing laundry now and I have to make sure I’m eating,’ she said. “It was very structured.”
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SHAD is a month-long program where you get to meet people across Canada, attend lectures and do labs and day trips. The participants, who are in Grade 10-11 only, then have one main project that you do.
At Shad students participate in hands-on learning, collaborate in design teams, explore post-secondary institutions, engage with academic and entrepreneurial mentors, experience vulnerability training, and meet some of the most passionate dreamers in Gen Z.
Each year there’s a theme, said Tuttle, and this year it was improving living spaces in Canada for Canadians to make them more accessible, sustainable and community oriented.
Tuttle said the month saw the students do lectures and labs and physical activity sometimes or fitness at the university because they has a gym there.
“The lectures and labs were done by professors, but there was a couple volunteers that we had come in and talk to us on a whole variety of things,” said Tuttle. “We did some chemical engineering, which was cool.
“We also had a lot of stuff on entrepreneurship and getting your ideas out there. We had one where it was talking about and then applying the process of how you solve real life problems and how do you interview people and narrow down what the source of the issue is so that you can then solve it in a way that actually works for them.”
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She said that was a very cool lecture.
“We basically had to talk to them and be like, can we narrow down what exactly the issue they’re having is? So that was one of my favorites. “
She said while she still hasn’t done Physics 11 at LHS yet, she was able to understand most of the lecture on it.
Tuttle was told that should make her ahead of the game when school returns in September.
“Yes it should,” she said. ‘I’ll already know some of the stuff.”
Tuttle had to apply to attend SHAD. She said it’s her understanding that they pick about 1,000 people to take part, and once the participant is selected they get to choose which university they will partake in the program at.
“I wrote a couple essays fairly short and told them about some of my extra-curriculars, showed them what my grades were,” she said about the application process.
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Tuttle said July felt like it was the “longest shortest month” at UNB because she and the others were doing so much. She would wake up most days at 7 am and not be back in her room until 10:30 p.m. from the days lectures/activities.
“It was very packed days, a little hard to squeeze some things in like laundry and such,” she said. “We only had like an hour a day to ourselves and to like just as free time.
“Every day it felt like you’re doing so much, and when it gets to the end it did not feel like the end. It felt like I’d only been there for like two weeks when I’d been there for a month.”
She said with being around the 51 other participants for a month she’s made some close friendship bonds.
“I now have fairly close friends who I’ve only really known for a month, which feels really weird, who I probably know as much about as friends I’ve had for years just because of how much time we spent with each other,” said Tuttle.
She said some people were really interested in coding and computer science, while there were others who were very musical or people who want to do physics or chemistry or engineering.
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Tuttle was asked what her message might be to other Grade 10-11 students interested in SHAD.
“It’s absolutely worth applying for,” said Tuttle as she kept eye on her bake table. “It was one of the best months of my life.”
“You meet incredible people and do really cool things.
“I feel like it pushes you out of your comfort zone and it’s a really good experience to grow, um, and become a better person.
“It was a very cool and great experience for me.”
