Western News – Western initially-year scholar and award receiver motivated to enable some others
When Whitney Onoberhie arrived in Canada from Nigeria 4 years ago, she was altering to lifetime in a new state and a new university. Yet, she turned her target outward, helping other youth in her college and in her local community.
“Helping many others is a drive for me,” she mentioned. “It tends to make me experience much more self-assured.”
Now a first-calendar year pc science scholar at Western, when Onoberhie and her family members settled in North York, Ont., she discovered she experienced to retake some of her higher school classes.
“I did not do so properly in quality 11 math,” she mentioned. “That’s what designed me make a decision to aid tutor other pupils at the school the following calendar year. I required to aid them as much as I could.”
In addition to coordinating afternoon classes at her higher faculty to assistance more than 10 science college students get ready for their ultimate exams, she also volunteered at the Parkway Forest Neighborhood Centre, arranging youth functions and aiding at the neighborhood food items lender.
Onoberhie’s potent educational general performance and volunteer contributions were not long ago identified when she was awarded an RBC Potential Start Scholarship for Black Youth. The scholarship presents up to $10,000 per 12 months for up to four several years toward tuition and other tutorial and residing expenses.
She was picked by a committee comprised of Black leaders from academic, organization and non-income backgrounds. Recipients advantage from added experienced methods, which includes mentorship, academic and vocation preparing, tutoring and networking prospects.
Onoberhie was nominated for the scholarship by the Occupations Schooling Empowerment (CEE) Centre for Younger Black Industry experts. CEE is a Toronto-dependent non-financial gain firm committed to addressing the financial and social limitations that influence Black youth. The organization was instrumental in Onoberhie’s schooling and vocation growth, and for inspiring her to increase her programming language skills by means of their Cybersecurity system.
“We are so satisfied and very pleased that Whitney was a successful applicant for the scholarship,” Bunmi Ehigiator, a manager at CEE said. “She’s extremely bold and hardworking, and we know this scholarship will enable to proceed her results and support her fulfill her long run aspirations.”
Onoberhie was drawn to Western for the potential to small in French when pursuing her laptop science degree and for the pathway to examine organization at the Ivey Enterprise College. She’s also experiencing sharpening her programming techniques as a member of the Western Builders Culture.
A “leader by nature” with a enthusiasm for innovation, Onoberhie aspires to a person working day apply artificial intelligence (AI) to further more humanitarian endeavours. She’s energized by the plan of applying AI to increase healthcare or to enable mitigate local climate alter.
“The way the earth is, there are more problems in advance,” she reported. “If we can concentrate on what we are establishing and get the right minds associated, I see choices for long term generations. I think the good aspects about AI are larger than the damaging kinds.”
