Gairdner Foundation - Student Outreach Program

Student Outreach Program

The Gairdner National Program sees current and past awardees fan out across the country to speak to medical and science faculty at 18-22 universities from St John's to Vancouver. Since 2001 they have also given lectures to selected senior high school and CEGEP students. During the lecture, which is 15 to 20 minutes long, the scientist is asked to address two questions: How did I get into the field? What is the question I have been working on? The lecture is followed by a question period, which is invariably lively.

The aims of the high school lectures are to encourage these students to consider entering science programs and perhaps eventually undertake careers in either science or medicine. This year lectures took place in Charlottetown, Kingston, Toronto (at York and University of Toronto), Ottawa, Montreal, Waterloo, London, Guelph, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. At several universities these lectures have become part of the overall student recruitment program.

Students are selected by their schools and an individual at each university coordinates the event. This year we reached over 3500 high school/CEGEP students.

One of the somewhat unexpected results of the senior high school program has been the pleasure that nearly every scientist has expressed at being given the opportunity to speak to a younger audience.