Winnipeg high school students win tech scholarships
Posted March 1, 2026 5:18 pm.
Last Updated March 1, 2026 6:29 pm.
Two Winnipeg youth won scholarships for their technology projects.
The Youth in Tech scholarships are awarded annually to high school students who demonstrate creativity and innovation in technology.
The scholarships were presented during the Dare Innovations Award Gala on Feb. 24.
Each student was awarded $1,000 to support their education or technology-related projects.
“It felt so amazing to be up on the stage and just sharing the stage among such amazing innovators in Manitoba,” said Antawn Omerez, a grade 11 student at Exchange Met School.
His project allowed him to bring together his two passions – basketball and technology.
Omerez spent a year to build an app that uses basketball statistics to help players and coaches in youth community leagues to understand player performance.
The application called Gamechanger Winnipeg is already being used by a local youth basketball league.
Omerez said he will use the scholarship money to develop a newer version using artificial intelligence (AI).
“Players are told to do better, but they are not really told how to,” Omerez said. “So, I wanted to build something that can help players to understand their performance.”
Chizara Anyanwu, a grade 12 student from Pembina Trails Collegiate, also won the scholarship for her app, Coeus, designed to help students in writing essays.
Anyanwu said she developed the app after noticing many of her friends were using AI tools to write their essays.
“I figured, why not make a tool that will help them write essays (instead of) erasing the whole writing process?” Anyanwu said.
Anyanwu’s app gives feedback on writing, grammar, and style. Unlike other AI-based tools, it doesn’t do all the job for the student but provides useful feedback.
Anyanwu said the scholarship will help her get advanced AI training.
Anyanwu said while Manitoba wasn’t usually not perceived as a technology hub, the Youth in Tech scholarships help to show youth there are opportunities in the province
“’cause it shows not just me, but (to) other Manitoban tech high schoolers that there is a career here, there are opportunities here, there is a community here that is thriving and it can help students,” she adds.
