How did BCIS come to have Apple-award winning apps that our students use to plan their schedules and activities? Meet the outstanding scholarship students who developed these apps, and who inspire other students to dive into the world of technology every day: Tom, Hower, and Wallington! These three Grade 12 students have been challenging themselves with app design and development, as well as sharing their knowledge with other students throughout the school since seventh grade. BCIS has awarded all three of them with scholarships for their dedication to sharing their passion with the school community.

Tom, Hower, and Wallington are the brilliant minds behind the "EASLINK" and "Student Bulletin" applications that can run on the iOS systems of any Apple device . EASLINK is a platform that allows students to advertise and register for the many Enrichment Activities (EAs) that are offered at the school. Traditionally, these activities relied on posters and word of mouth for signups, but EASLINK streamlined this process, and made it more sustainable. As Hower says, "EASLINK also made it much more accessible for students who try to find an EA to join since they can easily see all EAs in our school in one location."

The Student Bulletin app sustainably solved a similar school problem. This app provides a clean UI that displays important events to students and can seamlessly send out alerts of upcoming events to them. Tom describes how the app updated the process of alerting his classmates to school activities, stating, "Student Bulletin replaces the old, archaic Student Bulletin wiki page, and has features such as push notifications, calendar, and batch send emails." Thanks to its outstanding design, Student Bulletin even won an Apple WWDC21 Swift Student Challenge Award! Both wonderful apps found ways to improve the experience of students at BCIS, but they were not the only contributions these scholarship recipients made to the community.

Every week during the time when students meet for their Enrichment Activities, Tom, Hower, and Wallington can be found in the Design and Technology lab, along with other students participating in their Circuit EA. This EA is designed to help students, especially younger ones, get their first hands-on experience in building hardware. "We realized that many people don't have a lot of experience with technology. Because they don't have any experience in this, they just assume that they can't have any experience. It's difficult to get started." describes Wallington. The Circuit EA is an amazing opportunity for students to dive into the field of technology and has inspired many young learners to begin to build their own creations.

The students in the Circuit EA have created such wonderous projects as working circuits and glow tube clocks. They are even currently constructing a 3D printer! New students to the activity first learn the basics of working with tools and soldering, before coming together to collaboratively create a big project like the 3D printer. The design lab at BCIS has everything the young innovators need, from tools to materials, and is a fantastic workspace. As Hower explains, "Without this equipment, we would not be able to complete lots of the projects we worked on during our EA."

With all the inspiring opportunities for hands-on design, it is no wonder that the Circuit EA draws a large crowd of students in the Middle and High School. Tom, Hower, and Wallington's amazing achievements are worthy of praise in their own right, but the fact that they share their passion with so many other students truly makes them stand out! This is a major reason why all three of them were chosen to receive Merit Scholarships from BCIS, further helping them to pursue their dreams in technology, and inspire others to do the same. BCIS is currently accepting scholarships applications for the 2022-23 academic year, so apply now for your chance to join us and make an impact!