Two North Delta students have been awarded six-figure scholarships to attend Simon Fraser University this fall.
Seaquam Secondary graduates Bradley Schellenberg, 17, and Deanna Liu, 18 each earned one of the two largest scholarships offered at SFU. Schellenberg received the $100,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship for engineering, while Liu received the $110,000 SFU International Undergraduate Scholars Entrance Scholarship.
For Liu, who has been an international student at Seaquam since Grade 9, finding out she got the scholarship was an exciting moment.
“He said the amount, and I kind of thought I missed a zero,” Liu said about her phone call with the university. “I was so surprised and very excited. I told my parents and they hugged me. They were so happy.
“It seemed like all the hard work had payed off.”
In the four years Liu was at Seaquam, she had been an involved member of many clubs, including the debate club, the multi-cultural club, student council, the dance club and the ping pong club, all while undertaking courses in the school’s International Baccalaureate program. Now, she’s looking to take that experience into SFU’s Beedie School of Business.
It took Liu a while to decide to go to SFU though, even after the scholarship announcement.
“I hesitated a little bit,” she said. Liu wasn’t sure if she should take science at UBC, environmental studies at the University of Toronto, health sciences at Western University or sustainable business at SFU.
But eventually, she accepted.
“I always liked SFU’s program I applied to,” she said. “That sounded really cool, because it combined my passions together. The sciences, helping the environment, but also working with people on the business side.”
For Schellenberg, who’s been working with electronics since he was a kid, SFU’s draw came from its engineering program, as well as his $100,000 scholarship.
“I’ve always been taking apart things like old computers, or things that don’t work … and seeing what’s wrong with them,” he said. “I started making my own circuit boards and just learning through resources online.”
In 2016, Schellenberg and his Seaquam robotics club teammates competed internationally in a robotics competition, something which he said helped turn the club into a class. So when the opportunity came to apply for the Schulich Scholarship, one of the largest engineering and science scholarships for Canadian students, Schellenberg took it.
In 2016, Schellenberg and his Seaquam robotics club teammates competed internationally in a robotics competition, something which he said helped turn the club into a class. So when the opportunity came to apply for the Schulich Scholarship, one of the largest engineering and science scholarships for Canadian students, Schellenberg took it.
Getting the money still took him by surprise, however.
“When you apply for these things, you think, ‘Oh, it would be really cool if I got it,’ but you never really … think that you’re going to get it,” he said. “So I was pretty shocked.”
In his first year, Schellenberg will be taking “undeclared” engineering science, as is customary for students in that program. In the second year, he plans to specialize in either electrical engineering or engineering physics, with a possibility of pursuing aerospace engineering for his graduate studies.
But for now, he’s just excited to get into the courses.
“I think everyone’s a little nervous going in, but I feel confident about it,” he said. “So far, everything that I see on that curriculum I feel like I’m going to enjoy. I don’t think there’s anything they’re forcing me to take that I don’t want to.”
grace.kennedy@northdeltareporter.com
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