Delisle student, Kaitlyn Wright, is one of 10 students across Canada that has been awarded the Amazon Future Engineer Canada scholarship.
“I find it hard to still believe that, like me, a local girl, just from Delisle, Saskatchewan was selected for a $30,000 scholarship,” Wright told CTC News.
The money will be distributed over the next four years and will help Wright to pay for tuition and other costs while she studies computer science at the University of Saskatchewan.
She said she was told in a rather unusual way about her winning the scholarship.
“My sister took me to a library one day during the summer and all of a sudden a couple of people in the community that I know (showed up). We weren’t just getting out some movies at the library it turns out they had this box from Amazon, and so they wanted me to open it. And yeah, when I opened it, it turned out that there was a certificate in there saying that I had won the Amazon future engineer scholarship. And so it was a little overwhelming. It wasn’t just another normal trip to the to our library, that’s for sure.”
The scholarship also comes with the opportunity for a paid summer internship at one of Amazon’s Canadian tech hubs. It’s something that Wright said would be valuable for her future.
“From just the financial portion to the on-the-job learning aspects, I think the scholarship is really going to fuel my computer science education further.”
However, Wright is no stranger to the tech world. During her time at Delisle Composite High School she sought out ways to learn more about computer science, coding, and graphic arts.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of tech classes or opportunities. So I ended up taking some online computer science classes and graphic arts courses. And it was through those that I just felt that further confirmation that this is what I want to do,” she said.
Wright said she is excited to delve deeper into a field she is so passionate about.
“Technology is huge, I just feel that I’ve dipped my toes in the water.”
One of the classes that Wright participated in was offered by the Saskatoon Industry Education Council where she learned more about coding.
“I spent 24 hours, in total ended up producing a 2D platformer game that really helped add to my portfolio and just my skill set,” she said.
She also worked on her school’s yearbook and ended up making the submission process more efficient during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“(I) ended up creating an online Google form where students and staff across the school could submit their own content,” she explained.
“Especially during the 2021, year and the 2020, year, there was no extracurriculars. And so at that point, it’s kind of like for yearbook, you don’t just stop producing a yearbook for a year, because stuff still happens. So rather than filling your book with extracurriculars, I just collected pictures for this online form that I set up.”
Wright said she has big hopes for her future career.
“I do believe that technology has the power to enhance the lives of other people in our world. And I want to have a part in that in whatever form that may be.”
