July 10 – Day 10

At Laval this week, we headed to La Vallée de la Rivière Malbaie to spend the night camping. We left on Monday after lunch and drove three hours to our camp site. Once arrived, we divided into groups to unpack, set up camp and make supper. All the tents were big enough to fit 10 people but some were missing some parts which made us very thankful it didn’t rain during the night! After eating a delicious meal of chilli and tortillas we had a Shad Valley campfire ceremony. We all huddled around the campfire in silence and thought about what Shad Valley meant to us and why we were there.

When applying to Shad Valley, it may have been because of pride, to be among the best of the best or because your parents wanted you to go. However, nine days into the program, everyone’s perceptions changed. At Shad Valley, you might make new friends, you might break down and put yourself back together differently, or more importantly, you might find yourself. Personally, I am very inspired by my fellow Shads and leaders. The night sky was decorated by bright stars... almost as bright as the friends surrounding us.

Today we hiked out of the valley to see the amazing view from the plateau. The hike up was difficult in the hot sun but was a lot of fun as we shared songs and stories with our newly made friends. Although some people had difficulties and struggled their way up to the top, we all helped each other and persevered. When we finally did make it to the top, we all felt that it was well worth it. We had a beautiful view in every direction; higher peaks behind us and the valley below us, lush green forest surrounding us. The wind was strong and chilled us but we crowded together to keep each other warm. The hike down seemed to pass much faster but was still filled with happiness and laughter! I wish Shad Valley could last forever!

Now back at campus, we are going to have a well-deserved pizza and movie night after an awesome camping trip! Back to daily life tomorrow!

Adrienne Hynes, Shad Valley Laval 2012

July 10 – Day 10

It has been 10 days into the program here in New Brunswick, and we Shads are truly a family. Despite the exhausting, active daily schedule – the time is going by undeniably fast.

We have gotten into a rhythm here at UNB. We choose between morning workouts at the first-class sports facility, or the more satisfying option, sleep. After running to breakfast today, we played Ultimate Frisbee. It was the ultimate test against sleep deprivation.

Yesterday, we began the robotics task. We were put into groups and given instructions on building a robot. We were warned about precision, as the slightest error could make our robot do some funky dance moves. Today, we added breadboard circuits. On Friday, our robots will compete in following a path and shooting a dart gun. This stuff is ridiculously cool.

After some filling enchiladas, we toured a geology museum and learned about dinosaurs. Apparently, T-rex had feathers.

Admittedly, our Shad evening singing night was the highlight of the day. We listened to our tremendously talented friends – in awe of all the acts. Through the performances, theatrically and culturally, we are getting ever closer as a family.

You can check out our UNB Shad blog here: shadunb2012.edublogs.org

The Program Assistant wants me to go to bed, good night!

Kush Thaker, Shad Valley UNB 2012

July 9 – Day 9

These past few days at McMaster University have been jam packed with indescribably awesome activities. Just when you think they couldn’t get any better, another experience arrives and hits you in the face with a fist full of fun and pure excitement.

Recently back from a weekend of nature expeditions, swimming, ghost stories, and smores, also known as camping, all the McShads experienced incredible workshops today. Iron Shad at the New Media Lab was the workshop I was fortunate enough to attend. At the lab, I was no longer Huaqi Li the Shad, but Huaqi Li the Film Producing Shad. That’s right – film. We were given the task of creating a short movie that incorporated the secret ingredient, elevator doors. My group’s movie was a dazzling mixture of James Bond and Jigglypuff. The rest of the plot I will leave to your imagination, of course only until it comes to a theatre near you!

One of the twelve extremely lucky Shads at Mac to be selected to visit Xerox tomorrow, I need some rest to calm down from the joy, so that’s all for today folks!

Huaqi Li, Shad Valley McMaster 2012

July 9 – Day 9

“Beep, beep, beep!” The dreaded sound of my alarm clock filled my ears. At Shad Valley, every hour of sleep is precious and not something that you can let go to waste. Every day is literally jam packed with a plethora of fun and rewarding activities that are nonetheless tiring. Despite the cumulative effect of these draining activities and my hate for early mornings, I managed to drag myself out of bed with the anticipation of all the exciting activities that lay ahead.

We are kept very busy and a quick glance at the schedule revealed boxes upon boxes labeled “activity” or “lecture”. But as we tried to see if the ink would give anything away about the nature of these activities, the generic words only seemed to pop up and mock us. However, it is those pleasant surprises that make a typical day at Shad Valley that much more exciting.

After starting off the day with an energizing and delicious breakfast, we headed off to a pair of lectures. One was on number sets and the other on archeology. In the latter, we were privileged with amazing pictures of excavation sites and discovered how much archeology has revealed about our history. After lunch, we had time to work on our house project after which we were rewarded with extra recreational time coupled with a trip to the local park. A variety of activities such as soccer, volleyball, basketball, Frisbee and croquet were made available to us. To make things better, that was topped off with a mouth-watering barbeque upon our return to the campus.

We had idea vetting today for our house project and so we had more time to work on our house project before the big moment. When the time came, we gathered around a panel of senior staff and shared our ideas. They really challenged us to push ourselves in creating an innovative and practical product that could stand on its own in the competitive market.

It is hard to believe that it was only one week ago from today that we first woke up to the crisp Newfoundland air and began our journey of crafting lifelong friendships and memories. In this one week, we've come a long way in that journey and we’ll continue to grow in the weeks to come. With the conclusion of another amazing day at Memorial University of Newfoundland, I am happy to say that I had an awesome MUNday!!!

Jeremy Wong, Shad Valley Memorial 2012

July 8 – Day 8

WOOOOHOOO! Even with only six hours of sleep last night due to avid eagerness to expend more time for our meaningful and significant Shad Valley projects, Shad Valley unceasingly makes us all feel so positive, energetic and inspired to stretch beyond our limits!

Sundays are quite relaxing! Some visited downtown or slept in, but as business and science Shads challenging ourselves intrepidly in unfamiliar grounds, we spent a couple of hours defining art in preparation for our “Thought of the Day” presentation. We passionately debated if the famous “Erased de Kooning” – a blank piece of paper – could be considered art. Our conclusion: Art is our imagination. We don’t always have to see something to believe that it is there. Most of all, we realized the importance of vision and being accepting of all ideas, irrespective of how ridiculous they may sound!

After a brain-wracking philosophical morning, we each wrote a highlight and a wish of our first week at Shad Valley! Then, we split up to engage in workshops to learn about time management, usage of Excel and Google scholar, business ideas and opportunities, and how to build prototype models. Fantastic resources for our life-changing Shad Valley projects!

Amy Tso, Shad Valley Queen's 2012

July 8 – Day 8

Today was a “relaxing” Sunday. The day began with a pair of interesting and informative lectures by the one and only Dr. Siddiqui! The lectures were about rocks used in solving mathematical equations, also known as calculus.

In the afternoon, we challenged other groups to design projects of our creation. Some of which included: human chess, building flying devices and skipping rope challenges.

In the evening, we had three hours to work on our Shad Valley Cup projects; in that time, everyone was very productive and you could feel the excitement in the air. To celebrate our progress, the girls painted Milad’s nails; he is one of our Program Assistants. Other than a few verbal protests, he didn’t resist.

Everyone is excited for camping and canoeing tomorrow! We are leaving early, which means back to our normal schedule (but in the woods). SHAD VALLEY IS AMAZING!

Evan Parker- Langille, Shad Valley Lakehead 2012

July 7 – Day 7

(French follows.)

Today was an emotionally dynamic day for us at Laval. After an exceedingly large yet fantastic breakfast we went to a conference on the economics of poverty. It really linked to this year's project, and, of course, the extra time to read our case studies helped! We then worked in our committees (I'm in the multicultural group, and we are well organized by now).

After lunch was a workshop to help us investigate our Shad Valley Cup problems, and two other Shads played soccer and football for physical activity. After supper was just a bit of free time and project time. I am currently typing this in the residence kitchen where my camping group is preparing six pots of chili for Monday. So excited for the camping trip!!!!

On a more mournful note, our 50 Shads will be reduced to 49 tomorrow. We will all miss her very much, even though it's only been a week. Actually, it seems like we've been here for much longer than that; perhaps it's because everyone gets along so well. It's almost as if we have known each other for years.

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Aujourd'hui était un jour émotionalement divers pour nous à Laval. Après un petit dejeuner delicieux qui n'était pas si petit nous avons fréquenté un conférence au sujet des économiques de la pauvreté.  C'était très utile pour notre projet, et, certainement, le temps supplémentaire pour lire nos cases d'étude était apprecié par tout le monde! Puis nous avons travaillé dans nos comités (je suis un membre de la comité multi-culturelle, et nous sommes bien organisés).

Après le dîner était un atelier pour nous aider à trouver nos problèmes de Shad Valley Cup, et deux autres Shads ont dirigé du soccer et du football pour l'activité physique. Après le souper il y avait un peu de temps libre et un peu de temps pour travailler sur nos projets. Je tape courament ce blog dans la cuisine de résidence où mon équipe de camping prepare six pots de chili pour lundi. Si excitée pour faire du camping!

Malheureusement, nos 50 Shads vont devenir 49 demain. Nous allons la manquer beacoup, même c'est seulement notre première semaine. Vraiment, il y un sens que nous avions été ici pour une durée plus longue que ça; peut-être c'est parce que tout le monde sont des amis. C'est presque comme nous étions des amis depuis des années.

Erynn Button, Shad Valley Laval 2012