Prince George student gets STEAM award

Samantha Burke, a Grade 12 D.P. Todd Secondary student, has received a $25,000 national STEAM award for her excellent research work.

Burke has earned the STEAM Horizon award from Ingenium - Canada’s Museum’s of Science and Innovation, which goes towards her post-secondary education as she starts at the University of Alberta this fall.

The award has gone to five Canadian students who brought positive changes to their community.

Burke’s project was about the little-researched condition known as aphantasia, which is the inability to create images in one’s mind. 

Burke, who suffers from the condition herself, fashioned a survey of self diagnosis for people to conduct online. There are varying degrees of imagination and some in the survey said they imagined so vividly they could smell and taste in their imaginations and those people are deemed as having hyperphantasia.

“It was something that affected me personally so when I had the opportunity in school to do a project on something I was passionate about I saw it as an opportunity to expand my knowledge on this and follow the trail on something I really wanted to learn about,” Burke said. “I went a little over board with my project but I think that worked for the best.”

Burke is passionate about giving youth in rural areas of Canada more opportunities to expand their passions and understanding of STEAM fields, which include science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Burke has been involved in the community for many years, coaching at the gymnastics club and volunteering with Ness Lake Bible camp, and the Prince George Kids’ Club. She has also been active in extracurricular activities at school in the leadership program and the band program that has outreach in the community and notably with health care professionals in a program called the Kindergarten Health Circuit, which offers students in kindergarten a safe and welcoming environment when they receive immunizations and other necessary checkups.

“Being involved in the community has also played a major role in getting this award,” she said.

At the University of Alberta, Burke will focus her studies on biochemistry with the intention of going to medical school to become an oncologist.

Burke was inspired to follow the path to oncology by the book Hawk by Jennifer Dance that tells the fictional story of a young boy who is diagnosed with leukemia because of the environmental damage brought to the land of his ancestors by the oil sands industry.

“The book really set me in motion,” Burke said.

Burke hopes to one day research the effects the environment has on people’s health.

For more information visit https://steamhorizonawards.ca/2021-winners/Samantha Burke.