I woke up to my alarm clock ringing into my ear. I reached over and shut it off quickly. The time was 7:30. I had planned out that I would go to my Shad Cup Group and I would be able to get a decent amount of work done before our busy schedule started. Alas, the plan was a failure. I stayed in bed for over an hour and I didn’t manage to meet up with my group (staying in bed felt great :)). This could be mainly attributed to us having a Nerf gun war late at night before the boys went to sleep. Everyone was yelling in excitement so no one went to sleep for awhile.
The day started off with a lecture by our Program Director, Sultan Siddiqui, about Database design. He taught us about MySql which was a new computer language which I had yet to learn. The language was quite straightforward and it made making a database way easier than any other languages. Right after this, all the Shads participated in a Musical Ensemble where we played in the main building of Lakehead University for everyone to hear. The music was mainly focused around jazz and singing, and it sounded great!
Right after the Music Ensemble, we went to a nearby Plasma Centre which was the only institute in Canada that collects exclusively plasma from its donors. They talked about the importance of blood donors and plasma donors. It was extremely interesting and they gave us a bag full of goodies which everyone loves. After returning back to the residence, we listened to fellow Shads each giving their own 10 minute talk about a topic that they are interested in. I have to say, all the Shads here had picked the most interesting of topics to teach each other!
Here comes the best part of Lakehead Shad Valley - we have a program that originated at Lakehead and is still only appearing at Lakehead, called Shad Apprentice. This program was extremely educational as it was essentially a simulation of what the actual Shad Cup presentations will be like. Everyone enjoyed it immensely and benefited from this experience greatly.
Shad Valley has been a great experience every single day. We have learned from each other and have helped each other to become the best that we can possibly be.
Karoly Szalay, Shad Valley Lakehead University 2010
Hometown: Ottawa,Ontario
