A group of McGill University IMPRESS Program participants pose with burn bowls they crafted as part of a wilderness skills training workshop. Inset: students attend a lacrosse workshop.
Photos by Gemma Else
By Patrick Quinn
Around the country, partnerships are forming between Canadian universities and Indigenous communities to link secondary students and STEM-based mentors, integrating “two-eyed seeing” with traditional practices to deepen cultural connections while stimulating new interests and improving graduation rates.
This multifaceted approach is finding an audience. At a Canada 2067 Youth Summit, STEM students said they want more than career direction from mentors. Other goals include insight on navigating the educational system, living a balanced life, and finding learning styles that work best for them. They want mentors they can trust and who truly care about them.
Mentor relationships become more meaningful when there is a sense of shared identity and informal interaction, balancing emotional support with academic accountability that pushes students to achieve their goals. Effective mentors not only provide advice but are often actively involved in academics and longer-term planning. Personal growth is as important as professional guidance, connecting the next steps in a student’s STEM journey with their own interests and passions.
Through sharing knowledge and relating on a personal level, mentors often say they benefit equally from the relationship.
Peer support has also proven to be a powerful indicator of postsecondary success, instilling perseverance in overcoming obstacles. Indspire, an Indigenous education nonprofit, emphasizes the importance of decolonizing mentorship by centering cultural integrity and reciprocity, allowing space for self-reflection and the sharing of stories. “These connections can inspire, motivate, and provide an important sense of belonging that can be a real game-changer,” says Emily Whetung, former chief of Curve Lake First Nation and co-chair of last year’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) International Mentoring Workshop, “Gikendaaso Oshki Kwewag — The Young Women Carry Knowledge.”
Bringing together accomplished female mentors from Canada and around the world, the workshop featured motivational speeches, land-based learning, lab work, and visits to science facilities. Grade nine participant Chloe Malcolm says the experience “has given me direction and ideas for school and my career.”
Through sharing knowledge and relating on a personal level, mentors often say they benefit equally from the relationship. Mark Calette, a mentor in the Saskatchewan Research Council’s Aboriginal Mentorship Program, says he enjoys learning from a variety of Indigenous perspectives and the “different vitality” that students bring to his environmental remediation team. Calette’s mentee, Tomika Pinay, says the relationship gave her the skills and confidence to more effectively work with northern Indigenous communities, providing valuable introductions and tips for communicating with specific organizations. “It makes you feel like you’re not alone as an Indigenous student pursuing STEM,” said Pinay. “Having a good role model who is Indigenous pushes the path for everybody else. I’ve also grown as a person: I know who I want to be and how to make that happen.”
Program manager Lynnsey Chartrand of McGill University’s IMPRESS (Indigenous Mentorship and Paid Research Experience for Summer Students) believes its mix of mentor pairings, hands-on research, and cultural activities brings growth and healing to all involved. Métis participant Dane Malenfant says it spurs opportunities that are otherwise “systematically and structurally impossible to obtain in these large institutions.” Grace Diabo, a first-year computer engineering student from Kahnawá:ke Mohawk territory, says she gained a supportive community at IMPRESS, while the academic workshops and research sessions transformed feelings of imposter syndrome into a sense of belonging and readiness for the year ahead. “It was cool to be introduced to the world of research and to see it through the eyes of graduate students who were once in my shoes,” said Diabo. “I see that if they made it, so can I.”