“First and Best” Student Sets Sights on Engineering
The fields of engineering and geoscience attract some of the planet’s smartest people but it’s not often it can be said, with authority, that a prospective engineer ranks among the first and best.
Jay Shah, son of APEGS member Rajesh Shah, P.Eng., is this year’s recipient of the George and Marsha Ivany First and Best Scholarship.
The $40,000 scholarship has high standards, requiring a minimum average of 95 per cent simply to apply and an extensive background in school clubs community involvement, extracurricular activity leadership roles and athletic achievement to progress to serious consideration.
Jay met the exacting standards through involvement in Air Cadets, badminton, volleyball, “robot rumble,” math club, student representative council, traditional Hindu music and his school’s Change It charitable fundraising club. He is also a budding entrepreneur who has started his own custom clothing business.
With all the options available to him, Jay is planning a future in engineering, a choice he attributes to the many options available to engineers as well as its positive impact on the world.
“If you look around at the world, where there is disease and sickness, doctors thrive. Where crime is bad, lawyers thrive. But engineers thrive when times are good and they thrive on making people’s lives better,” Jay says.