On September 8th, we hosted A NIGHT FOR BRIGHT MINDS, officially welcoming Cohort 2021 and celebrating all 332 Beedie Luminaries in the program!

After nearly two years of only virtual connections, we loved having our entire community of students, mentors, supporters, and friends together again! The energy in the room was amazing, magnified by the musical performances by Luminaries Savannah Read and Adriana Zaharijevic! It was so inspiring to hear from Founder Ryan Beedie and our keynote Andrew Petter, SFU President Emeritus.

At the event, we were also proud and excited to present the Beedie Luminaries’ Annual Recognition Awards to 48 recipients from Cohorts 2019 and 2020! These awards recognize our students’ exceptional accomplishments in the areas of academic achievement, peer leadership, and meaningful contributions to our program and communities.

Huge congratulations to all our amazing recipients, we are so proud of you:

Founder’s Award - Kisa Naqvi (2019) & Melody Weng (2020)
Program Ambassador Award - Raven Arly Gonzales (2019) & Bethanea Chou (2020)
Peer Leader Award - Denise Faith Cachero (2019) & Sally Elhennawy (2020)

Academic Achievement Awards

Cohort 2019:
Aamba Chavis, Catarina Rodriguez, Chenille Wong, Clay Meng, Helen Su, Ivy Liao, Jaashing He, Jenna Sangha, Julia Farrell, Lili Cormier-Stumpf, Maryam Bhalloo, Michelle Yang, Polina Petlitsyna, Radhika Patel, Raven Arly Gonzales, Sarah Abdullah, Savannah Read, Si Jia (Sally) Jiao, and Terry Lin.

Cohort 2020:
Adriana Zaharijevic, Agartu Ali, Amber Fill, Andy Luo, Ashley U, Bethanea Chou, Bettina Karl, Christina Lam, Lucy Luo, Hana Kim, Joanna Luo, Julia Townsend, Kalen Francis, Kenny Zhou, Minjin Kim, Nadia Gifford, Parneet Bhatha, Sarah Azad Manjiri, Sarra Pirmohamed, Sayan Saha, Sienna Nargang-White, Sina Allen, Tayyib Chohan, Tessa Brown Jones, and Victoria Patenaude.



We were also honoured to present the following 2021 Scholarship Awards within the Beedie Luminaries Program:

Gordon B. Shrum Scholarships: Ava Clark, Hamrah Riyaz Mohamed, Khawlah Khan, Siham Abdelhameed, and Useni Mgeni.

Vistara Elevate Award: Atta Ur Rehman Faiz

Christie & David Garofalo Award: Clare Douglas

Thank you to everyone who attended, both in person and virtually, and a huge congratulations to the 2021 Cohort!

A Warm Welcome