CIHR-STIHR Youth Mentorship Initiative

CIHR recognizes the need to provide youth with opportunities to advance their interests and abilities in health research so that they can make informed post-secondary academic and career choices.

The SYNAPSE CIHR/STIHR Youth Mentorship Initiative is opened to all Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR) and will provide funds to facilitate the connection between STIHR trainees/researchers and Canadian youth. The Program's primary target audience is intermediate and high school students as they are most receptive to in-depth mentorship experiences and post-secondary career advice.

The primary goal of the program is to connect Canada's next generation of researchers with today's leaders in health research. Through collaborative partnerships between the research and science awareness communities, STIHR trainees and researchers will connect with youth throughout their community.

Objectives

The specific objectives of this initiative are:

• Connect youth with STIHR trainees and researchers
  Researchers have an important role in mentoring youth. They can help young people develop a greater knowledge of health research and explore post-secondary academic choices leading to careers.
• Provide youth with health research experiences
  Through hands-on experiences youth are to gain an understanding of the process of research and the connection between the laboratory and science taught in the classroom.
• Establish partnerships with youth SRT awareness community*
  Projects are to be developed and delivered in partnership a local youth SRT awareness group. The quality and impact of the experiences will benefit from both a) the mentors, material and facilities of the STIHR sites, and b) the youth education expertise and communication networks of local youth SRT engagement groups.
• Publicly promote the STIHR and CIHR
  Projects are to include a public component, providing the general public and educators with the opportunity to meet researchers and youth involved in the mentorship projects.

*youth SRT awareness community: school boards, museum and science centers, science teachers associations, provincial and national non-profit organizations such as the Youth Science Foundation, ACTUA, Lets Talk Science, le Conseil du développement du loisir scientifique (Québec), Access Program for Women In Science and Engineering (Manitoba), etc.