Planting the seeds of STEM in Indigenous youth

SaskEnergy offers a wide range of careers, including many in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). To encourage Indigenous students to consider careers in STEM, SaskEnergy employees are presenting lunch and learn sessions in First Nation schools across the province.

“The goal of the program is to have young people get excited and engaged with STEM careers,” says Joseph Daniels, SaskEnergy’s Director of Indigenous Engagement.

SaskEnergy employees Brittany Kelm, Jamie Kilkenny and Dana Kostyk — all who work in engineering and technology roles — are leading the program. The goal of the sessions is to provide insight into various career paths, share personal experiences, and offer guidance on how to pursue education and training in these areas.

“Highlighting opportunities in STEM for the next generation is key to building a more unified and caring future,” says Dana, who works in SaskEnergy’s Analytics team.

“After reflecting on the lack of Indigenous representation in the engineering profession, I asked myself what I could do to engage Indigenous students,” says Brittany, who is a member of our Pipeline Engineering team.

The lunch and learn sessions kicked off on February 11 at Bernard Constant Community School on James Smith Cree Nation and a second session was held at Punnichy Community High School. Over the course of the next year, the team will visit an additional 10 First Nation schools across Saskatchewan.

As part of each lunch and learn, the team delivers a presentation that shows how STEM is used to design and build a traditional Indigenous structure, like a teepee.

Following the presentation, the students break off into groups for a hands-on activity where they design a tower from provided supplies, such as modeling clay and paper plates. The activity allows the students to use STEM skills to make the biggest tower possible.

“The first session was a tremendous success,” Brittany says. “The students were curious, engaged, and eager to take part. They told us they felt inspired and appreciated the opportunity to learn about STEM in such an interactive way.”

Quinn Legare, a SaskEnergy pipeline engineer, attended the first STEM lunch and learn session. He explained to the students how engineering contributes to the structural stability and construction of a teepee.

For him, one of the pieces of advice he’d give to students interested in careers in STEM is to stay in school.

“Education provides so many opportunities,” he says. “When you graduate in STEM, you’ll have the opportunity to build things that help people in their day-to-day lives.”

“These fields might seem intimidating or unachievable at first, but if you’re willing to try, you can never truly fail,” says Dana.

In addition to STEM careers, SaskEnergy offers a variety of job opportunities across different fields, including customer service, human resources, marketing and communications, and legal.

Joseph believes the work done through the program may pave the way for more Indigenous employees at SaskEnergy.

“I’m very excited for this program,” he says. “Hopefully in a few years, we will have some young people hired here at SaskEnergy as a result of these sessions.”