international programmers in the most prestigious computer science competition for secondary school students around the world. Bruce prepared for the international contest for several years from Year 9, attending training camps and being guided by University of Canterbury professors and past competitors. In 2020, he entered the Immerse Education Essay Competition. His essay titled ‘Is the UN an effective body?’ secured a full scholarship to attend the Immerse Cambridge Summer School at the University of Cambridge. However, the pandemic intervened, prompting the cancellation of the summer school.
Bruce accomplished several other remarkable feats during his secondary school years, including being a finalist in the 2019 Bright Sparks competition for his College Clock timekeeping project, and a member of the winning team at the 2020 Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Programming competition. However, one of his most treasured achievements during his College years is a very special tutoring initiative, Academe. “A major initiative that I took on while at College was directing Academe, a community-service tutoring programme supporting the children of the victims of the 2019 mosque attacks,” Bruce says. “Every weekend,
volunteers from College and St Margaret’s College run one-on- one tutoring, which has been much appreciated by the Muslim community and the local council. This project received a $10,000 grant from the Government and is still continuing, with leadership passed down to younger students from both schools.”
Long-term, the passionate developer is weighing up his career options.
“I’m not sure of my plans, as computer science plays an important part in so many fields. Currently, I’m interested in research around the safe usage of Artificial Intelligence.”
COLLEGE 2023
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