Student Stories – Uchenna Academy

Co-Op

admin — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:52:12 +0000

A Co-op Success Story: Welcoming Loic to the Team

Friday, June 12, 2026

Each year, our co-op program opens our doors to students from other schools who want real workplace experience. This year, we had the privilege of working with Loïc Pereira, a student from a nearby French school.

Through our co-op program, we welcome students from other schools into our facility at 950 Dupont Street to gain hands-on experience in a real sports-and-education environment – earning high school credits while discovering what a career might actually feel like. This year, that student was Loïc Pereira, who joined us from a nearby French school and embedded with our media and production team.

A little bit of everything

Loïc described his placement as “doing a little bit of everything,” and his work backs that up. Under the guidance of our media manager, Aniket Rao, he designed posters and brochures in Canva, edited video in CapCut, and produced content for the Uchenna Academy and Ballmatics Instagram pages. He built player highlight reels, cut our graduation livestream into shareable clips, recorded game stats, and gave shooting feedback to our junior team – even helping set up our graduation event along the way.

What he took away

Loïc sharpened his design and video editing skills, but just as importantly, he learned to work in a professional environment — meeting deadlines, communicating with coworkers, and reviewing his work carefully before it went public. Asked whether he’d continue in this field, his answer was a clear yes:

“I enjoyed designing graphics, editing videos and helping manage social media content. This experience showed me how creative media can be used to promote sports programs and athletes, which is something that interests me.”

He called the workplace “professional, welcoming and very collaborative” — exactly the environment we work to build for every student who walks through our doors.

Thank you, Loïc, for your hard work and great energy. We can’t wait to see where you go next.

Interested in a co-op placement with Uchenna and QSLA? Email us at info@uchenna.ca to learn more.

College Expo at Uchenna – Oct 1, 2025

admin — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 01:14:37 +0000

From the Classroom to the Court to Your Career

Mark Your Calendars: Our First-Ever University & College Fair!

We’re proud to announce a major first for Uchenna Academy (all students are welcome):

🗓️ Uchenna Academy University & College Fair
📍 Right here at our campus – Register online
🕚 Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 11:00am

Representatives from top universities and colleges in the USA, UK and Europe will be on site to speak directly with our students about:

Academic programs
Scholarships & admissions
Athletic recruitment opportunities
International study options

This is YOUR chance to network, ask questions, and start shaping your future.

Also coming up:

✅ Ontario University Fair (OUAC) – Sept 27 & 28, 2025 at MTCC
🔗 ouac.on.ca/ouf

Tools to Use Right Now

We’ve also added resources to help every student take action now:

🎯 BigFuture Career Quiz – Find out what careers fit your strengths
🏀 NCAA D1 Planning Worksheet – All our students learn their GPA during week 1 of classes, and then we start projections!
📅 Book 1-on-1 guidance sessions with our team anytime -our post-secondary search is done with coaches and guidance, starting in November for our seniors.

French Class Debat!

admin — Sat, 27 May 2023 14:48:56 +0000

French Class: Vive la debat!

In the 2022-2023 school year, our students discussed AI and whether it has the capacity to replace teachers. We invite you to watch the discussion online!

Fun fact: Three of the student-athletes in the video are running for the Valedictorian Award! Which students? Who will be crowned the Valedictorian? Let us know your predictions.

Uchenna Academy offers a certificate to all students who successfully complete the Core French program. Students who complete all 4 credits (Grades 9-12) in Core French qualify for a Certificate of Achievement in French.

Online video: (183) Fiche de travail : Planification d’un débat vidéo (Cameron & James) Partie 1/2 – YouTube

Student Testimonial: Managing Competitive Athletics

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:07:10 +0000

Student-Athlete Testimonial

Brannon joined Uchenna Academy while he played with the OJHL and then the AJHL in 2020-2021 school year.

We are confident he will have a plethora of university choices for the Sep. 2021 start date!

Uchenna Academy is ideal for any athlete with a busy schedule. The pace and flexibility of my teacher was perfect. The commitment and passion from my teacher really inspired me to try harder and made math fun. I went from a high 60% in grade 11 math to 87% in grade 12. The one-on-one teaching really helped me to understand and grasp the topics at hand. The format of the class was also very engaging. With an easy to maneuver interface and textbook component it made learning easy and manageable with a busy schedule. I cannot emphasize enough how good Uchenna was for me as an athlete!

Testimonial: Laurier Co-Op and HustleHawks

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 17:16:50 +0000

Co-op BBA at Laurier University and HustleHawks

Gerald is our past student, currently completing the Co-op BBA program at Laurier University. He is also busy creating a startup called HustleHawks. It is a mobile app marketplace that provides jobs for college and university students performing tasks for other students, businesses and people in the local community.

The app is currently in its ‘beta’ stage and any of Uchenna Academy current students requiring volunteer hours are invited to work with Gerald and earn their volunteer hours while also helping a successful launch of HustleHawks.

Gerald summarized his review of Uchenna Academy as follows:

I took my drivers ed. and calculus course at Uchenna Academy. I achieved success in both because of the awesome faculty, great learning environment and the creative ways that content is taught. It is the perfect balance between learning all necessary material and achieving academic success without countless hours of homework! They also offer great tutoring services as well.10/10

Gerald’s dad responded to our renovations news by providing direct feedback about his experience with Uchenna Academy:

My son is a graduate of the Uchenna Academy program (2019-2020 school year) and currently a top student in his Laurier co-op BBA program. He greatly benefited from the skills developed at Uchenna. His experience at Uchenna was back in the day when you had only a fraction of the resources that you do today. To prospective students/families: take advantage of this opportunity. It seems like the program is vastly improved… and it was already an amazing program years ago. Your student will definitely develop skills that will benefit them years later… a wise investment in their future.

We wish Gerald all the best in his studies and with HustleHawks. We have no doubt we will be seeing HustleHawks in our app searches soon!

Testimonial: From 41% to 86%

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 18:52:44 +0000

From 41% to 86% and never looked back

Grade 12 average: 80%+

University of Choice: York University

Duane started his high school journey with our partner QSLA in grade eight as a member of the Reach Ahead program through his home school, Oakwood CI. From there, he formally joined the Uchenna Academy Basketball program, became a volunteer with us, racking up around 500 volunteer hours and improving his academic standing in all subjects.

His mom, Jackie has been a vocal supporter of our efforts. Here is what she had to say:

My son’s math teacher graded him at 41% and wanted me to put him in the applied level class. Instead, he started to see a QSLA teacher and on his first test got 86%, second highest in class. My son’s teacher was shocked. QSLA and Uchenna Academy have a great teaching talent and I hope you continue to be around for all the students.

Duane is currently completing a Concurrent Teacher Education Program at York University. We have already collaborated when he decided to use our BallMatics program for his ‘What is Education’ course, and look forward to seeing him grow as a teacher.

We invite you to watch the video below that highlights how Duane has grown alongside our school and our partners, QSLA and BallMatics.

https://www.facebook.com/quantumsla/videos/788355038603632/

Testimonial: Math for Architecture

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:56:55 +0000

Architectural Science Program at Ryerson University

Grade 12 average: 90%+

University of Choice: Ryerson University

Most of our students come to Uchenna Academy through word of mouth. Melissa was a student that came to us after her sister took mathematics at our school.

In this video, Melissa explains how taking mathematics at Uchenna Academy helped her raise her grades from low 70s to high 80s over the course of her senior year. Her accomplishment in mathematics helped her get into one of very few Architectural Science programs in Ontario, at Ryerson University.

Melissa posted a wonderful note about us, one year after her high school graduation:

Uchenna Academy provides a welcoming environment with passionate staff that want to help. I personally received help in high school math for 2 years and took their Calculus and Vectors course during the summer. During this time I was able to enjoy learning and found each lesson easy to understand. I cannot recommend them enough!

We love helping our students succeed.

Student Spotlight: Hockey Scholarship

admin — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:38:43 +0000

Securing a Post-Secondary Athletic Scholarship

Grade 12 average: 87%

University of Choice: University of Guelph

Gabi is a former Uchenna Academy student athlete. She attended Uchenna Academy in grades 11 and 12 to ensure her academic standing was strong enough so she can receive a hockey scholarship to University of Guelph.

As an entering student-athlete, Gabi demonstrated her athletic and leadership qualities and was nominated for a University of Guelph scholarship, however, she also had to ensure she had a high academic standing in her grade 12 courses. Uchenna Academy helped her get there with our small class sizes that facilitated individualized academic assistance, periodic check-ins and continual opportunities to improve her grades.

She is currently completing a Bachelor degree in Marketing and Sports Management, and playing on the University of Guelph hockey team.

Most recently, Gabi updated us and told us she is doing well in all her classes, including statistics, and has a kitten Kobe that helps her manage her schoolwork. We wish Gabi all the best in her studies!

Testimonial: Math for Nursing

admin — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 21:56:07 +0000

Nursing as a Career Choice

Grade 12 average: 87%

University of Choice: Trent University, Nursing Program

Throughout my education, I found myself always stuck in the middle of never really excelling in any one subject. All my friends found a passion in a specific subject, whether it was Math, Arts Science or English, you name it. But I just couldn’t imagine myself pursuing a career in any of these subjects.

The thought of Nursing was always at the back of my head, but I never really knew what it encompassed. After research on what it entailed and a visit with my friend to a hospital, I was finally able to piece together my future. Nursing is very much so a science based degree, but incorporates many forms of art and social skills. I found that Nursing was a perfect balance between understanding the science behind how the human body functions, and learning the impacts of spiritual, emotional and mental health.

As I was approaching grade 12 with my new-found passion in nursing, I had to figure out how I could get in. I realized that I did not have many of the pre-requisites for this program, and Uchenna Academy helped me create a plan and accomplish that goal within the year.

I was accepted into Trent University for a B.S.c.N for fall 2016 with a scholarship, and as of last week finished my first year of Nursing school. I experience my first clinical placement and have learnt more in the last 8 months than I have in my whole high school career. Although daunting, going into nursing has been the best decision I’ve ever made, unlike high school I was finally excited to learn because I was able to choose what I was learning about. Nursing is one of the most demanding careers, but without question is one of the most rewarding.

Written By: Annie Davies

To Read Annie’s first Nursing Paper, click HERE. We are so proud of her achievements in just one short University year and are happy to have been able help her get there!

Testimonial: Why do summer school?

admin — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 18:11:00 +0000

Student Testimonial | Saving our Planet

Grade 12 Average: 82%

Courses Taken at Uchenna Academy: Grade 11 mathematics (MCF3M), Grade 12 Economics (CIA4U)

University of Choice: University of Waterloo

In grade 9, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life- career wise. In grade 10, my old relatives asked me again, I still had no clue. It wasn’t until my older sister advised me when I was in grade 11 to take some grade 12 courses to get them out of the way so I wouldn’t be stressed the next year.

Taking her advice, I enrolled in an online course through the TDSB, and signed up for taking grade 11 mixed math at Uchenna Academy, during the summer of 2016. Keep in mind, I had already taken grade 11 applied math at my high school, and had a lot of difficulty with it. The way my teacher at Uchenna Academy taught me math… it all just started to make sense. After taking the grade 12 online course in “Resource, Environment, & Management” I had found something I liked, science, but without the math component. I really enjoyed finally understanding math with Uchenna Academy’s help, but it still wasn’t something I wanted to pursue at university.

In grade 11, I took two grade 12 courses, and the grade 11 mixed math course which gave me some extra credits. In grade 12, I had a bit of an idea of what I wanted to do, and that was studying the environment and earth’s patterns, making/changing policies in cities to reduce gas emissions and global warming, etc.

With the math knowledge I had acquired, and enjoying studying with the small class sizes at Uchenna Academy, I decided to enroll in another course in night school at Uchenna, Economics. I found economics really interesting and my teacher at Uchenna Academy made it make sense, I don’t know if it was because there was never more than 5 people in my classes so we got more attention for our questions or if it is just the learning style of their school.

Once I finished Economics, another grade 12 credit, I only had to do really well in English, Business, and Media at my homeschool. With obtaining marks over 80% in all my courses, I applied to 6 universities, (Laurentian, Trent, University of Waterloo, Lake Head, York, & Carleton.) Very luckily, and surprisingly, I got into all of them with an 82% average. Over this past year I have worked very hard and my average has gone up to an 86% before entering my exam period which I am currently in now.

Two offers out of the universities I got accepted into really stood out to me: Trent University, Water Sciences, and University of Waterloo Resource, Environment and Sustainability Co-op. It was a very hard decision because I did not want to just pick a school based on its reputation, I chose to attend University of Waterloo because they had co-op and I truly believe students that gain experience while finishing their post secondary schooling will have more job opportunities and I wanted to gain as much experience as possible.

Having completed the 3 courses before finishing grade 12 took so much pressure off. Only having to worry about maintaining the highest marks I could achieve in 3 courses was a very smart decision. Most of my friends are pulling their hair out because they have 6 exams this month and have to obtain over an 80% (or higher depending on their program,) in all of them is very stressful.

I am really glad I attended Uchenna Academy because they gave me the confidence I was lacking to keep my head down and study to my fullest potential. If I had not taken two courses there, I probably wouldn’t have been sane throughout this past year and I am forever grateful for that.

If you are in grade 11 or younger, the best advice I could give you is try new things. Open your mind to every possibility that comes your way if you don’t know what career path you wish to go into. If you don’t have the marks for it, or don’t feel you are smart enough, go have a pep talk with the teachers at Uchenna Academy and I promise you, you will be able to achieve anything.

Written by:

Diana Davey, UWO class of 2021