This past July, McGill hosted 48 high school students from across Canada as part of the Shad Canada program, a pan-Canadian enrichment platform for young Canadians tap into their full potential

For many people, summer means spending more time with the kids. This July, Stefanie Blain-Moraes and Chris Moraes took it to the extreme, chaperoning 48 high school students as part of the Shad Canada program.

Each year, Shad provides the opportunity for over 1,000 students from across Canada to attend a month-long live-in summer enrichment program at one of 21 Canadian host universities, focused on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts & math). The participants are secondary school students (grades 10 and 11) who are exceptionally well rounded in the areas of academic performance, creativity, community contributions and leadership.

Moraes, calls the experience of living in residence with four dozen high school students “eye-opening,” but perhaps not in the all-night-pizza-parties way some people might think.

“We sometimes forget how much raw potential young people have, and also how many unique challenges this next generation faces,” says Moraes, Canada Research Chair in Advanced Cellular Microenvironments, and McGill’s Shad Program Director.

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