Scholarship winner out to find novel solutions

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This article was published 07/06/2017 (3072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A $70,000 scholarship is helping Elijah Dietrich continue to create opportunities for change in his community.

Dietrich, a Grade 12 student at Kelvin High School, recently received the 2017 TD Scholarship for Community Leadership, awarded to graduating students who demonstrate outstanding leadership in driving social change in their communities, according to a release. Dietrich was one of 20 students chosen for the scholarship across the country.

The Fort Rouge resident was recognized for his work as co-president of the student council, his efforts to establish a high school pilot program with North Forge Technology Exchange, and leading Kelvin’s Environmental Action Committee (EAC).  

“I’m beyond thankful and honoured,” Dietrich said. “To have what I’ve done recognized means a lot to me and it’s something that will motivate me to continue to doing things I can for my community.”

Dietrich, 18, founded the EAC in his Grade 10 year after hearing a rumour that recycling at Kelvin was being put out with the trash. After talking to custodians at the school, Dietrich learned that garbage was being mixed in with recycling by students and the material was of too low quality to be recycled.

“I got a few of my friends together and I said, this is a problem, but we can probably solve it through some awareness,” Dietrich said. “So we put together posters and put them up around the school and when Earth Week came around, we decided to put a few events together.”

The newly formed EAC held its first event outside the school’s gym during intramural basketball season and encouraged players to get in on the recycling action with a material sorting challenge.

“Because it was a competition and it was so close to them, we had over 100 people take part in this game and it became really competitive,” Dietrich recalled. “That gave us a lot of recognition in terms of the school.

“Given the momentum we gained from that, contamination in recycling really hasn’t been an issue since.”

As president of the EAC, Dietrich also began a petition to remove styrofoam products from the school’s cafeteria that garnered about 400 signatures and prompted the food service provider to offer a paper option instead. The committee also invited Winnipeg South Centre MP and Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr to the school to speak about the federal government’s strategy to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

“I’ve always been interested in the environment and I think it’s one of the greatest issues of our time, especially when it comes to climate change,” Dietrich said. “It’s hard to see the direct link between improved recycling practices and climate change, but it all circles around to the same thing.

“So there’s a roundabout way where even small changes can have an impact on really big issues.”

Dietrich said during his four years at Kelvin High School he’s learned that it’s important to seek out opportunities to create change, or establish them where they don’t exist. While studying integrated engineering and business at the University of Western Ontario, Dietrich hopes to combine his passion for technology and environmentalism to find new solutions to the problems facing the world.

“Whether you look at clean energy or desalination, I just think there’s a wide range of technology that can have an impact on people’s lives,” he said. “The tricky part is getting that technology into people’s hands and that’s where business comes in.”

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