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Oakville student competing in international science fair By Domini Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 5 · Thursday, April 15, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com An Oakville teenaged researcher is taking a recent project that netted her second place at a regional science fair to a world-level competition in California. Vivian Leung, 17, is one of the Canadian high school students going to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, taking place May 8-14. "I'm very excited," she said. "It's been a fantastic journey and I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of Team Canada and other people and seeing how they've shared their passion with science through their projects as well." She was given the nod to go to the competition, taking place in San Jose, when she came in second place last month at the 50th annual Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF) in Hamilton. Ian Coomes, of Appleby College, finished first at the competition, but will be competing at the Canada-wide science fair competition in May because he is still in elementary school. Three other young scientists who competed at BASEF Vivian Leung will join Leung in San Jose. They attend Hamilton high schools. The Grade 12 Abbey Park High School student's project is called Morphological and Functional Characterization of Lower Female Genital Epithelial Cell Cultures Grown in Different Conditions. In describing the project, Leung said the genital epithelial cells, which form the top most layer of the reproductive tract, play an important role as they are the first barrier against viruses and sexually-transmitted diseases, such as HIV. "One of the major issues in the research world right now is a discrepancy between your lab controlled setting versus doing things on reallife human beings," she said. For her project, she tried to create a better lab model to accurately reflect the human body settings. She used an air-liquid interface versus a conventional method, which looks more like the natural body cells. She said, "This model's been used for other types of epithelium cells, but never in the context of the reproductive tract cells. So we can use this model to look at how herpes interacts with it or HIV potentially to look for better treatments and even a cure for these diseases." By coming in second place, the Oakville born and raised student has received cash prizes and a paid internship at McMaster University. For next year, she was accepted to Harvard University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and is still waiting on an acceptance to McMaster. She plans to go into medicine, either as a medical researcher or a doctor, but does not know yet which school she will chose. If she chooses one of the Canadian universities, she will have her first four years paid for. She recently received a TD Scholarship for Community Leadership, which is a full scholarship for an undergrad program at any university in Canada. She said she's done a lot of community work in her high school years to get the award. Last August she founded the Oakville chapter of Pencils for Kids. The organization raises aware- ness and funds for education resources such as schools and textbooks in poor places such as Libore, Niger, which is the place the Oakville chapter raises money for. Leung has also done fundraising programs throughout the community, such as selling poinsettias for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. She said, "For me HIV and the effects of it has been a prevalent and an important issue to address. It's a devastating disease. There are so many children and women in very impoverished areas affected by it." Leung has also received a $5,000 scholarship from Wendy's Restaurants for her education achievement. The students attending the worldwide science fair competition will have all expenses paid. Student art on display at education centre The Halton District School Board is hosting a three-day art show featuring work from hundreds of its elementary students. The show began Wednesday and wraps up on Friday, April 16. It takes place at the New Street Education Centre, located at 3250 New St. in Burlington. The art was created by students of the school board. The artworks are in various types of media including water colour, pastel, crayon, paper sculpture and clay sculpture. There will also be guest professional artists from the Burlington Art Centre on hand. The exhibit is open to the public on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Creating sensational smiles in Oakville for 15 years. NEW!