The Research Mentorship Program program, in partnership with the Queen’s Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre since 2017, aims to share knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm between graduate students and high school youth. Our mentorships are a collaboration led by the interests and goals of our mentees and relevance to their own community. We aim to foster inquiry and problem-solving skills through scientific discovery to help equip our mentees for success in their career pursuits.
During the winter term 2023-24, we were privileged to offer seven weekly sessions in General Science and Human Health with eight Indigenous youth in grades 8-11 at the Katarokwi Learning Centre (KLC) in Kingston. Topics, based on mentees’ interests included DNA the blueprint of life, water purification, the amazing world of bacteria, airplane physics, Blood and ABO blood typing, and the total solar eclipse. In addition, mentees enjoyed a field trip on May 17th to the Queen’s Elbow Lake Environmental Education Centre to experience a lake sediment coring demonstration, seine netting and Indigenous history of wetlands in the area. We thank Jamie Would and Monica Garvie (Pearl Lab, Dept. Biology), who co-led the above activities with Emily Verhoek (Coordinator, Elbow Lake Environmental Education Centre).
Working alongside Program Coordinator Bruce Elliott (DPMM) are Mentorship-Lead Isabelle Grenier-Pleau (DBMS), Assistant Coordinators Doriana Taccardi (DBMS) and Sherri Dutton (Dept. Public Health). Head Mentor Jamie Would (Biology) provided support for our graduate student mentors Samantha Cockburn, Fateme Babaha & Marco Buttigieg (DPMM), Marie Boddington, Jill Greenwood, Jayne Dent, Nicholas Smith & Yasmine Saini (DBMS), and Aishwarya Rajesh Krishnan & Jaydn Clark (HSCI). The entire Mentorship Team has found the program a very rewarding bi-directional learning experience!
We thank KLC Teachers Michelle Nyamekye & Taylor Arndt, and Vice Principal Adam Andrecyke for their strong support and guidance. Our program is supported by the Queen’s Inclusive Community Fund and a CIHR Synapse award.
The full highlight package can be found here.