Burnaby resident Brittany Palmer was awarded a 2012 youth entrepreneur award recently.
Palmer was awarded for her work starting a company that helps students get scholarships.
Palmer herself graduated debt-free from SFU with a bachelor's degree in communications on a series of scholarships. The 24-yearold began Unlock your Future in 2005 as a community project, which later morphed in to a business in 2008.
Over the years, Palmer's talked to thousands of parents, students and teachers on how to secure scholarships. Palmer was honoured on April 17 at the Cultural DIVERSEcity Awards in Vancouver.
SCIENCE STAR
Does an electric field affect plant growth? Alpha student Samantha Cibere may be able to answer that, based on her recent entry in the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair at UBC. Samantha's project, along with 13 others, was selected from 265 entries to go on to the national level of competition in the Canada Wide Science Fair, May 12 to 18 in Charlottetown, P.E.I. For more on the fair, go to http: //cwsf.ca.
GREEN IDEAS
Burnaby students spent last Friday getting ready for Earth Day at a district-wide environmental conference, organized by students, for students.
All schools in Burnaby were invited to attend the day of speakers and workshops on environmental sustainability. The event was organized by the Burnaby Youth Sustainability Network, which was co-founded by Jennifer Hao, whom we recently featured in the NOW. Attending groups included Ocean Gybe (a sailing expedition/ awareness project about plastics in the oceans), Free Geek (a computer recycling company), Metro Vancouver, Organic Lives and the Environmental Youth Alliance. The venue at Burnaby South Secondary was decorated with 15 six-foot trees that students could plant once the event was over.
FUN IN FRENCH
Roughly 175 Metro Vancouver high school students ascended on Burnaby's SFU campus April 24 for a series of workshops on French. Francophone and francophile guest speakers attended the event, designed to give Frenchspeaking students a chance to explore the benefits of bilingualism. French For the Future, a national nonprofit that promotes bilingualism, hosted the annual event, which takes place in more than a dozen cities across Canada.
Send Here & Now ideas to Jennifer, jmoreau@burn abynow.com. You can also follow her on Twitter, @JenniferMoreau.