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ENGAP students win Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Awards

November 4, 2016 — 

The Faculty of Engineering’s Access Program (ENGAP) is thrilled to announce that Kyle Monkman, a 23 year old Metis engineering student has won the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award (MAYAA) for the Senior Academic category, and Emma Gillespie, a 17 year old Metis engineering student from Selkirk has won the MAYAA for the Junior Academic category.

kyle-monkmanKyle is a 4th year Electrical Engineering student with a GPA of 4.33. This past year he won the U of M Open Mathematics Competition, and for the past two years he scored in the top 25% in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition which is open to all students studying at a Canadian of American university. He has volunteered the U of M Space Camp, and with the Verna J. Kirkness Science and Engineering Education Program, which has the goal to “Increase the number of First Nations, Metis and Inuit students graduating from science and engineering programs in Canada.” Kyle is a role model and mentor for other students and regularly tutors ENGAP students. Over the last two summers Kyle was involved in research through the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, and he hopes to continue his education to the Master’s or PhD level in engineering. Kyle is also musically gifted, playing the guitar with the U of M Downtown Jazz Band and with different blues bands that have performed at the Winnipeg BBQ and Blues Festival.

emma-gillespieEmma graduated from the French Immersion program at the Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School this past June and was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Medal for her school. She is fluently bilingual in French and English, has achieved a good communication level in Spanish. She is a first year engineering student, and was awarded the U of M Queen Elizabeth II Entrance Scholarship, as well as the Price Industries Entrance Scholarship for Engineering. she has played ringette for seven years, and won a bronze medal at the Western Canadian Championship when on Team Manitoba. She volunteers as a coach and mentor, volunteers at the Selkirk Hospital Gift Shop, and helped the Philanthropic Educational Organization in their fundraising efforts.

The Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Awards recognize the accomplishments of Indigenous youth in the fields of culture, employment, traditional lifestyle, business and academic excellence. Both students will receive their awards at an awards ceremony being held on November 24th at the Victoria Inn.

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