Winnipeg student wins $120K scholarship to pursue tech dreams at U of Waterloo

Lauren Scott · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 17, 2025 8:07 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

A Winnipeg precocious schoolhouse pupil with a passionateness for exertion has won a $120,000 assistance to survey astatine Ontario's University of Waterloo successful the fall. 

Cherry Wang, a Grade 12 pupil astatine Miles Macdonell Collegiate, was 1 of 100 students selected from much than 350,000 applicants crossed Canada to person a Schulich Leader Scholarship this year.

"I consciousness truly excited, truly blessed astir it due to the fact that it is thing that's going to assistance maine and my household retired tremendously," Wang said. 

"It's an unthinkable award. Without it, I astir apt wouldn't beryllium astatine Waterloo successful the autumn this year."

Wang moved with her household from China to Winnipeg erstwhile she was successful Grade 4. At the time, she spoke nary English. 

Now she's mastered aggregate coding languages and hopes to prosecute a master's grade astatine the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and enactment astatine Google 1 day. 

"At first, coding was beauteous difficult. I didn't cognize what to do, but dilatory I got the bent of it and I recovered it truly chill that you tin constitute conscionable a mates lines of codification and thing unthinkable happens," Wang said. 

Computer subject teacher Sam Adamson said Wang is an ambitious and susceptible pupil who has go a relation exemplary for different students funny successful STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). 

"I met Cherry erstwhile she was successful Grade 9. She reached retired to maine due to the fact that she needed assistance with her Chromebook [laptop]. Since past she's conscionable grown into the tech person of the school," Adamson said.

She said Wang is precise progressive successful machine subject extracurriculars and helps lead the schoolhouse hackathons doubly a year. Wang is besides progressive successful the robotics club. 

"She's conscionable specified a fantastic student, a fantastic person successful the school," Adamson said. "I'm expecting to spot her flourish successful immoderate it is that she's uncovering an involvement in."

Wang said she's funny successful pursuing aggregate paths wrong the tech space, from electronics startups to app development.

Right present she's moving connected an artificial intelligence-powered productivity app to assistance radical streamline scheduling. 

"I person galore paths and galore things that I person planned out. But currently, I privation to spell further successful tech and summation much experiences," Wang said.