Youth Outreach by Graduate Students in the Greater Montreal Area

In the field of immunology, scientific connections between youth and researchers can prove to be beneficial for the future treatment of asthma, allergy, influenza, HIV, diabetes and arthritis - to name but a few. An important first step is to open the eyes and ears of the next generation of potential researchers to these problems- and then add this kind of scientific study to a high school student's curriculum. Dr. Erwin Schurr plans to do this by using educational tools that involve science fairs, school lectures and laboratory experience.

Dr. Schurr's CIHR-STIHR Youth Outreach project will involve the 91 graduate students, 53 postdoctoral fellows and 34 undergraduate students based at the Centre for the Study of Host Resistance at McGill University, plus various high school students drawn from the Montreal region.

In partnership with Immunology Montreal, a non-profit youth outreach initiative, CIHR will support Dr. Schurr's efforts to encourage graduate students to mentor youth through the creation of prizes at science fairs in the French and English sectors of Montreal, 'Let's Talk Science' (one-on-one science project support), Internet-based tutorials, and work at a certified lab. Graduate students will also be trained in how to present publicly at high schools, and also how to teach effectively through workshops.

"Unfortunately, very little information regarding the immune system is provided to high school students in their biology classes," says Dr. Marianna Newkirk, co-founder of Immunology Montreal. "We would like to change that by stimulating interest in this particular field with the help of scientific mentors. University students will help high school students with their science projects, and even possibly their career decisions. By stimulating this scientific juncture between mentors and trainees, we are helping to engineer a win-win situation."