PROFILES
Connor Scheu, Gold Medal Student Award for Outstanding Leadership, Contributions to Society and Volunteerism by an Undergraduate Engineering Student
You could say Connor Scheu is going places — both literally and figuratively. At 23, he’s travelled the globe working on humanitar- ian and sustainable development projects. In high school, he spent a summer in Tanzania as a World Vision Youth Ambassador to better understand issues surrounding poverty. This was followed by a year of public advocacy, during which he brought these lessons to Canadian youth through public speaking engagements. He continued this work by volunteering with Homes of Hope, helping build houses for impoverished families in Mexico, and through a water sanitation project at an orphanage in Nepal. But it was a trip to the Arctic after he finished Grade 12 — right before beginning his studies at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering — that had the biggest impact on his future career aspirations. As part of a Students on Ice polar expedition, he spent a month with 100 other youth on a research vessel traversing the eastern portion of the Northwest Passage, learning about the effects of climate change on the wildlife and Inuit Peoples who live there. For a Métis youth who was taught to respect nature, the journey was life-changing. It led him to focus his studies on environmental sustainability instead of international development — although in the end, both are deeply connected. “Through my trip to the Arctic, I discovered that all the work we’re doing in international development is at risk from climate change. Every time there’s a drought in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, they lose up to 10 years of development work,” says Mr. Scheu, an APEGA Student Member who is pursuing a degree in civil engineering, with an energy and environment specialization. “That’s what steered me towards a renewable energy path, that galvanizing experience in the Arctic.” A second one-month voyage with Students on Ice two years later — this one to the Antarctic Peninsula — was equally inspiring. Living on an icebreaker, communing with penguins, and conducting a research project on the use of phytoplankton for carbon seques- tration, he came home with a new perspective and a renewed desire to combat climate change. “I learned to view the world differently and to view our place in the world differently,” says Mr. Scheu. “I decided the way I can achieve change is with engineering — to change the way we use our energy and where we get it from, for the betterment of the planet and those who come after us.” Indeed, his stated life’s ambition is to bring Alberta, and the world, one step closer to a sustainable energy future. “My dream is to make our energy mix a little more sustainable, because at the moment Alberta has the most carbon-intensive energy in the coun- try,” he says. “We have a long way to go, but there are solutions out there.” He’s even more passionate about finding solutions after travel- ling to Bonn, Germany, this June to attend the latest round of dis-
LAVA LESSONS This summer, Engineers Canada award recipient Connor Scheu spent three weeks learning about sustainable energy while studying in Iceland, where nearly 100 per cent of the electricity and heat come from renewable resources. He’s shown here in front of the lava field that surrounds the famous Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa, fed by the water from a nearby geothermal power plant. -photo courtesy Iceland School of Energy/Golli
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