{"id":118919,"date":"2025-09-04T09:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/118919\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:13:10","slug":"nba-all-star-pascal-siakam-visits-new-brunswick-students-receives-honorary-degree-new-brunswick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/118919\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA All-Star Pascal Siakam visits New Brunswick students, receives honorary degree &#8211; New Brunswick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some New Brunswick students had a slam-dunk second day at school thanks to a surprise visit from an NBA All-Star.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The students at Gagetown School were told Wednesday they were gathered for a presentation as part of Data Dunkers, a program that teaches children data science using basketball statistics.<\/p>\n<p>They were expecting NBA champion <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/pascal-siakam\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pascal Siakam<\/a> to join virtually, but instead, he strolled right into the school gym to a chorus of cheers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI almost had tears falling from my eyes. It\u2019s a big moment to see someone coming to a small school like Gagetown,\u201d said Grade 8 student Avery Richardson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be an NBA player when I\u2019m older.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756402221_230_national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>Siakam joined students and answered questions, signed autographs and posed for a photo.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>For some students, it was a dream come true.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really shocked when I actually seen Pascal Siakam, and my parents were always watching him when I was a kid,\u201d said Grade 8 student Hunter Schriver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I get home, I\u2019m just going to be screaming in joy and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Siakam, who is originally from Cameroon, is a three-time NBA All-Star and currently plays with the Indiana Pacers. In 2019, he won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11391308\/lisbon-funicular-rail-accident\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/funicular-lisbon.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tLisbon funicular accident kills at least 15, authorities say\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11390424\/temporary-foreign-worker-program-pierre-poilievre\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1756977190_444_Poilievre-TFW.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tEnd Canada\u2019s temporary foreign worker program, Poilievre says\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s visit to Gagetown School was a pit stop, en route to University of New Brunswick\u2019s Fredericton campus to receive an honorary degree.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Siakam partnered with UNB\u2019s McKenna Institute and the River Philip Foundation to establish a $200,000 tech-focused scholarship for Cameroonian students through his foundation.<\/p>\n<p>His PS43 Foundation aims to promote STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education, financial literacy, life skills and mentorship programs for underserved youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just felt like, man, this is kind of perfect, having the opportunity to give back to my community but also Canada,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The university\u2019s president, Paul Mazerolle, said Siakam was the perfect candidate to receive the honorary degree.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were looking for someone recognizing leadership, commitment to education and commitment to transformation and student futures. Pascal ticks all those boxes,\u201d said Mazerolle.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some New Brunswick students had a slam-dunk second day at school thanks to a surprise visit from an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,14614,82,66259],"class_list":["post-118919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-pascal-siakam","tag-sports","tag-unb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}