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Experience best education, says teen

Grade 10 Canmore Collegiate High School student Isabella “Izzy” Pedersen has been accepted into the prestigious Shad Valley summer enrichment program. “I’ve been blessed and I’m lucky to know what I’m looking for in life,” she said.
Isabella Pedersen relaxes with her guitar. The Canmore teen will attend UBC this summer on a Shad Valley scholarship.
Isabella Pedersen relaxes with her guitar. The Canmore teen will attend UBC this summer on a Shad Valley scholarship.

Grade 10 Canmore Collegiate High School student Isabella “Izzy” Pedersen has been accepted into the prestigious Shad Valley summer enrichment program.

“I’ve been blessed and I’m lucky to know what I’m looking for in life,” she said. “I’m lucky that I have family and friends that support and motivate me to try and achieve my dreams.”

Based out of Waterloo, Ont., Shad Valley is a non-profit organization which aims to help prepare secondary school students for university life.

“It’s basically a program that tries to give high school students a taste of university life,” said Pedersen. “It focuses a lot on entreprenuership and it’s learning how to collaborate and work with other high school students from all across Canada.

“I’ve heard a lot of feedback about it and I’m very excited and honoured that I’ve been selected to attend.”

While several thousand students apply to the program, only 500 are selected to attend, split into groups of 50 at 10 university campuses across the country during the month of July.

“I hope it’ll help me grow as a person,” said Pedersen. “I want to come back and share with other people what I learned.”

Pedersen will attend the University of B.C. campus in Vancouver. Though she is looking forward to an academic life, she is not yet certain which direction to take.

“I’ve always been interested in medicine, but I also really love the arts – I love music and drama and acting,” she said. “So I think it’d be interesting to pursue something in that too.

“But they’re very different paths, so I’m not sure what I really want.”

Though young, Pedersen has become known for having done many different things, including music, theatre, sports and volunteering.

Among her volunteer activities, she has participated in the Christmas Spirit Campaign, Community Clean Up and the Debbie Travis All For One renovation show, having helped a family renovate their home.

“We were trying to get more parent volunteerism, so part of my work was to try and encourage them to come,” she said, describing an event she orchestrated. “I choreographed a parade down Main Street to get the attention of our parents. It’s one thing to say ‘students get involved’, but it’s very important parents get involved in the lives of their children too, because it creates so much more of a creative environment.”

Experience is the best teacher, she stressed, which is a big part of why she wanted to attend Shad Valley.

“I was always raised that experience is the best teacher, so if you really want to engrain something in your mind, you should be able to experience it first hand and know the feelings,” she said. “It’s one thing to read about China in a book, it’s another to go there and see all of it.

“I feel instead of trying to prepare for university from getting what other people have told me about it and applying and studying hard in school, this will be a great experience for me to know what I’m looking for in post secondary school.”

Pedersen plays piano and trumpet and is learning guitar. Recently, she went on a school band trip to California and has sung at various local talent and idol competitions. She plays collegiate soccer and has a competitive background as a figure skater and dancer. This summer, she will also sing in the artsPeak festival. Her main love at the moment is theatre and drama.

“I think athletics are just as important,” she said. “It’s really good for someone to take care of themselves and care for their body, because if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.”

While the Shad Valley program may be an important experience, it isn’t free, and carries a $3,500 price tag, which Pedersen is seeking to pay for by finding donations from the community.


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