Alice Ko truly encompasses the qualities of a Governor General Academic Medal recipient. Alice has been a dedicated Burnaby Central Wildcat through her academic excellence, her dedication to her leadership development and sense of community mindedness.
In her Grade 11 and 12 year, Alice took several full-time courses, achieving an average of 98%. This past year, she received seven top student awards; primarily in the area of Business Education. She also earned work ethic, service award, honour roll and principal’s list every term of her career at Burnaby Central Secondary.
In addition to her impressive academic achievements, she was involved in many extra-curricular aspects of our school. Alice demonstrated her strong interpersonal skills as President of the Entrepreneurship Club and Minister of Clubs for our Student Government. She worked with the student body to both support and inspire both school-based and community initiatives. In the community, Alice has donated her time selflessly by volunteering. Most impressively, has been her work with the Hot Potato Initiative Foundation. This is a youth-led, non-profit organization working to destigmatize homelessness and inspire everyday citizens to take action. She began this campaign at Burnaby Central and supported the expansion of this initiative to 20 other secondary schools in the lower mainland. Together they prepared and served hot potatoes for over 2000 residents of the downtown Eastside. Alice’s fondest memory and appreciation of Burnaby Central is the nurturing and caring support system she and other students experienced. She described Burnaby Central and the support as a holistic approach that encourages students to try out new opportunities and to attempt more hands-on experiences. Teachers describe Alice as an outstanding, compassionate and humble student who genuinely cares about others and her community.
Alice is currently enrolled at UBC in the Commerce program at the Sauder School of Business. In the future, she will continue to explore the many aspects of Business and knows her focus will always be, helping others.
Congratulations, Alice Ko.