Four students win Wakefield Canada scholarships

Four students from across Canada, whose schools participated in Castrol’s High School Synthetic Education program, were selected by Wakefield Canada to win $1,000 scholarships.

The winners are: Scott Coker, Huntsville High School, Huntsville, Ont.; Pierre Thibodeau, New Brunswick Community College, Bathurst, NB; Brandon Lowe, Burnaby Central Secondary School, Burnaby, BC; and Pierre Germain Dassylva, Centre La Croisse, Saint-Raymond, QC.

The winners were among many who were nominated by their automotive education teachers for a chance to win the scholarships. The $1,000 can be used by the students to help further their post-secondary education in the automotive trade.

Nearly 17,500 students participated in the education program which was offered as part of their automotive shop classes. The provinces participating in the program were British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. The program offered Canadian high schools a synthetic oil education kit which can be incorporated into the school’s regular automotive education program. The kit includes a ASE-certified synthetic oil training DVD and a test. As well, participating automotive education classes received a cast of Castrol synthetic 10W-30 oil and an official Castrol banner for the shop.

Chad Cole, trade marketing manager for Wakefield Canada Inc./(Castrol BP strategic Canadian Business Partner) in Toronto, was very pleased at the high level of participation by Canadian schools and the number of students.

“It was ten times higher than what I would have expected when we first offered this program out to the schools,” Cole said. “We achieved in this first year a nearly 75 per cent success rate, and the schools and students were very enthusiastic about the program.”

Cole added the synthetic education program was made to be easily integrated into a classroom’s lesson plan, and is looking over time to add new tools to the program.