A Burnaby continuing education teacher and her Grade 12 social justice students are collecting donations for Jeffrey Ross Residence and Crabtree Corner on March 9.
"The main goal for this project is to actually get involved and be proactive," said teacher Vicki Ng. "I think it's going to be a huge learning experience for them as opposed to just hearing about it. . I hope they can empathize, not sympathize."
Jeffrey Ross Residence is third-stage housing complex for people with disabilities in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and Crabtree Corner runs transitional housing for women who are overcoming substance abuse.
The students are collecting blankets, clothing and nonperishable food for both organizations. People can drop items off at 4247 Lougheed Hwy., between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 9.
For more information, email [email protected].
LEGO whiz kids
Kudos to Burnaby North Secondary student Oscar Shi, who won three trophies at a FIRST LEGO League B.C. Regional Championship Tournament held at BCIT on Jan. 26. Wei and his team, the Super Ninja Bunnies, won awards for second place, strategy and innovation and robot performance in the robot-building competition. The annual contest drew more than 100 children, ages 5 to 14, who created robots using LEGO. The Super Ninja Bunnies team also included Coquitlam students Johnny Wei, Bruce Yan and Tianhao Xu.
Jung honoured
Burnaby's Bradley Jung is making a name for himself in aerospace engineering. The 22-yearold Carleton University co-op student was named Undergraduate Co-op Student of the Year after developing a computer program that helps investigators reconstruct aircraft accidents.
As part of the co-op program, Jung was working with a Transport Canada facility that analyses black boxes after airplane accidents.
Jung's program estimates a plane's flight path using information about altitude and wind. Engineers can then use the estimated path to reconstruct the accident. The program has already been used in two high-profile incidents and has helped investigators to come up with crash results and analyses more quickly.
"Bradley was a truly exceptional co-op student - not just the top one per cent, but the very best I've seen in the last five years," said his supervisor Patrick Zdunich.
Jung is a Burnaby South grad, and he moved to Ottawa to study at Carleton.
Beauty queens
Burnaby's Alexis Scigliano, 21, is running in the Miss World Canada pageant.
She made the national finals, which air on TV on May 9. Scigliano was chosen from 400 applicants, and she will face 40 other contestants. The winner gets a scholarship and a chance to compete in the Miss World pageant. Scigliano is studying developmental psychology at SFU.
Herleen Sethi, 16, and Trinity Stanley, 13, made it to the nationals for the Miss Teen Canada World pageant in July. Trinity, a Burnaby Central student, is one of the youngest contestants, and Herleen goes to Deer Lake School.
