A student at Queen Elizabeth Secondary will be seeing his own work on this year’s Surrey Schools orange shirts for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Grade 8 student Austtin Khan designed the logo for the district’s shirts as part of a student project during his Grade 7 year at Simon Cunningham Elementary. Inspired by a video he watched online depicting how to draw a bird, Khan put the logo together, noting he designed the image in memory of a friend.

“One of my friends passed away and his favourite bird was a raven, so I decided to do a logo of a raven,” said Khan. “I was mostly surprised that it was picked for the shirts, I didn’t think it would actually be used on anything.”

In previous years, the district’s orange shirt designs were created by the Aboriginal Learning department, but when department principal Juanita Coltman heard about Khan’s logo, she said she jumped at the opportunity to showcase his work.

“[Former district principal] Gordon Powell used to design it, but instead of me doing it, I thought it would be great to have a student design it,” she said. “Our support staff told me about Austtin’s design and I reached out to the principal about using it on the T-shirt.”

Khan said he’s excited his design is being shared with students and teachers across the district, as is his former principal, Kym Cook at Simon Cunningham Elementary.

“Austtin is such an intelligent and humble person, and we are so proud of this opportunity for him,” said Cook. “He is a dedicated individual, and I know he will bring a strong and confident presence to the Queen Elizabeth community.”

(Surrey Schools)