Ammielle Wambo Becker has been announced as a winner of the Schulich Leader Scholarship. The $120,000 grant supports students in completing an education in STEM (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) fields.

The 18-year-old from Brampton, Ont., who wants to be an entrepreneur, plans to attend the University of Waterloo. She will pursue a degree in systems design engineering.

“We just had to read through the offer letter and make sure it was real because it didn’t feel real,” Wambo Becker told the Brampton Guardian. “My mom was really happy. It was a big shock and surprise for us — a life-changing moment.

“When I found out that the scholarship was for the program, I wanted at the school I wanted, it felt like everything was falling into place, and it didn’t feel real,” she added. “And I felt like I would wake up in the next few days and realize I had misread it, or it was a mistake. But now I get to live my dream. And so, it’s very surreal.”

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With dreams of launching her own tech startup at the intersection of biology and engineering, Wambo Becker said she hopes to explore building products that will positively impact people’s lives.

“I want to get involved with the National Society of Black Engineers, Women in Engineering, UW Startups, and the Women’s Centre,” she told the University of Waterloo in a statement.

In school, her extracurricular activities included being a swimming instructor, a freelance writer, and a teen advisor for Girl Up. She also led her school’s newspaper club, organized a regional STEM conference for elementary school students, won a few hackathons and completed two internships.

Wambo Becker was awarded from a field of more than 1,400 students and is an Ecole Secondaire Jeune sans Frontieres graduate. Every high school can nominate a student, and at least 100 scholarships are distributed each year to study at one of 20 universities.

“I am delighted to welcome this year’s cohort of Schulich Leader scholars to Waterloo’s campus,” Vivek Goel, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo, said in a statement. “These students represent some of the sharpest young minds in STEM, and I am excited to see the game-changing contributions they will make to society.”

Other scholarship winners include Serewaya Latif, who will attend the University of Toronto for engineering and Maxwell Nganyadi will head to the University of Alberta to pursue a career in science.