2003 Harmony
Scholarship Recipients
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Ms. Joy Lapps Ajax High School, Ajax, Ontario / York University For the last six years, Joy promoted diversity and harmony through music for organizations such as the Ajax Race Relations Committee, the Pickering Caribbean Canadian Cultural Committee and Multicultural Durham. She was also a leader of Ajax High School’s Culture for Peach Committee where she had a significant role in the school’s Multicultural Show and Black History Month events. Joy was a member of the leadership team for the White Bandana Anti-Violence Campaign and a leader at the Students and Teachers Against Racism camp where she raised awareness of ethno-cultural equity issues and anti-racist strategies. |
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Ms. Rahana Adam Notre Dam High School, Ottawa, Ontario / University of Toronto Rahana chaired the Black History Month celebrations at Notre Dame High School and helped organize the school’s multicultural show. Rahana was the first black Head Girl at the school and led Notre Dame’s Ambassador program. She also promoted diversity through her volunteer work with the Catholic Immigration Center, Child and Friendly Ottawa, and the United Way. Rahana was the recipient of the Citizen of the Year Award for Ottawa. |
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Ms. Giselle Davidian St. Joseph’s Morrow Park High School, Toronto, Ontario / University of Toronto As the Multicultural Minister at St. Joseph’s Morrow Park High School, Giselle organized an anti-racism campaign and multicultural celebrations such as a Black History Month assembly and Chinese New Year celebrations. She was also the Under-Secretary General for the Catholic Schools United Nations Assembly 2003 where she chaired the Human Rights Committee. She was actively involved in the Armenian Pavilion during the International Day event and a member of Amnesty International at her school. |
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Mr. Tristen Naylor Oakville Trafalgar High School, Oakville, Ontario / University of Ottawa Tristen is a founder of the Oakville Youth Council on Race, which has created a website promoting diversity and has published three award-winning essays on discrimination, diversity, and intolerance issues. Tristen is a Canadian Landmines Foundation Youth Ambassador. He has also been an active volunteer of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar for thirteen years. Tristen was the recipient of two awards from the Nihewan Foundation for creative works on cultural understanding, diversity, and communication. |
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Ms. Jennifer Provost Lo-Ellen Secondary School, Sudbury, Ontario / Harvard College Jennifer is the founder of an Amnesty International Youth Group and a discussion group on discrimination issues at Lo-Ellen Secondary School. She organized annual events to commemorate the International Day for human Rights, National Day for the Remembrance of Violence Against Women, and March 21st, the UN International Day for the elimination of Racial Discrimination. Jennifer has attended youth conferences on human rights violations resulting from discrimination and was the recipient of the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association Awards for community involvement and the promotion of intercultural awareness. |
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Ms. Ellen Quigley Walter Murray Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan / Harvard University For the last four years, Ellen was actively involved with the Walter Murray Human Rights Society, which organized two multicultural feasts and an anti-racism simulation. She was also an actor in a play about homophobia, for grades nine to twelve students. Ellen helped create and implement Students Forum, which allowed students at Walter Murray Collegiate Institute to have a voice in school decisions and promote harmony in the school. She was speaker at the University of Saskatchewan’s “Breaking the Silence Conference”, which educated people about homosexual, bisexual, transgendered, and transsexual youth. |
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Ms. Sumaiya Sharmeen West Toronto Collegiate, Toronto, Ontario / University of Toronto Sumaiya promoted harmony and anti-racism at West Toronto Collegiate for the last four years. She helped create a video on race and anti-racism, organized an anti-racist assembly and a school-wide Stop Racism activity. As President of Student Council, she organized the multicultural and anti-racism assembly to celebrate March 21st and a multi-Religious holiday assembly to celebrate different cultural holidays. Sumaiya was the promotion coordinator for Multicultural Teen Coalition, affiliated with CultureLink, to help students new to Canada adapt to Canadian culture and language. |
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Ms. Divya Viswanathan Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute, Guelph, Ontario / University of Guelph As a mentor in the Challenge Day Mentorship Program, Divya mentored students on issues including racism, oppression, violence and how to respect and communicate with each other. She was a leader of Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute’s Global Outreach club and helped organize activities on Black History Month and No-Racism Day. She also worked on planning educational programs for Teacher Advisory groups on topics including Tolerance, Multiculturalism, Violence Against Women, and Sexist Images in the Media. |
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Ms. Lisa Wang Notre Dome High School, Ottawa, Ontario / University of Toronto Lisa created Unity Through Art to promote harmony as a response to the events of September 11th, which included the creation of wall-sized art triptych. She is an active volunteer with Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa and has coordinated projects such as the Anti-Bullying Symposium. Lisa is a youth representative for Health Canada and Child Engagement Experts Resource Team and is working on Canada’s National Plan of Action to be submitted to the United Nations. She is also a volunteer with Catholic Immigration Center to help newcomers to Canada. |
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Ms. Li Zhang Langstaff Secondary School, Richmond Hill. Ontario / York University As President of Racial Acceptance and Cultural Equality (RACE), Li organized a conference, Helping Youths Promote Equality. She began a Feeder School program in which members of RACE visit elementary schools to promote diversity and multiculturalism. Li was the main organizer of the Student Ambassadors for RISE, a conference on equity issues for teachers in York Region. As an Ontario Youths Multicultural Representative, she founded the For Rights Everywhere Everyday Depend on Mankind conference. |
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Acknowledgement
Harmony Movement would like to thank the following members of the Harmony Scholarship Selection Committee for their work to selecting this year’s recipients:
Mr. Jean-Remy Emorine, chair
Mr. Leslie Chan
Mr.Ashley D’Silva
Mr. Ranvir Jangi
Ms. May Sanaee
