‘You can dream big’: Students learn a range of skills at new forum
By: Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Source: TBnewswatch.com
IGNACE — Students from several Northwestern Ontario communities got to try their hand at, and learn more about, a range of skills tied to the nuclear industry.
The Township of Ignace, alongside several other organizations, held the inaugural Ignace Nuclear Youth Symposium, which brought about 100 high school students from Ignace, Dryden and Pickle Lake together for the three-day expo.
“We’re trying to make sure that they are thinking big because, although you may not know what you want to do when you’re in Grade 11, Grade 12, that’s very common,” said Adriano Augellone, an electrical engineer-in-training at Stantec. The consulting firm was one of the main sponsors and exhibitors at the symposium.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and so we’re just trying to help them understand and know that they don’t have to have all the answers, but there’s nothing too big that you can do.”
“You can dream big, you can have faith, and you can build on skills that you don’t think you have.”
The symposium was designed to expose youth to a wide slate of career opportunities in the nuclear field’s orbit, said Jake Pastore, Ignace’s communications and outreach lead. The Township of Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation are the chosen host communities for a proposed deep geological repository that, if approved, would store Canada’s high-level nuclear waste.
The three-day event was held at the Ignace Recreation Centre, primarily in a pair of multi-purpose spaces in the building. The students took part in different workshops, exposing them to hands-on experiences in areas like environmental sampling and monitoring to architecture and the trades — like carpentry. There were also presentations on topics like radiation and how the DGR’s barrier system would work.
Vince Ponka, the Indigenous and communications manager with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, said it was also important to stress the myriad of potential careers, should the DGR be built, that don’t involve the sciences.
“I’ll be taking part in a workshop really talking about those roles and, again, really zeroing in that we’re not just looking for those science roles,” he said on Wednesday, which was the event’s second day.
“People like me that work in communications are going to be important going forward … we’re going to need accountants and environmental monitors and planners and project managers and all the rest.”
The facility could employ anywhere from 400 to 600 people, Ponka added.
Pastore said the goal is to run the youth symposium again in roughly three years with a different cohort of high school students, and possibly expanding it to also include those attending post-secondary institutions. He said they will also look into doubling the number of attendees and expand it to include invitations to other regional communities, including Thunder Bay.
“I think this is a great inaugural event; we’ve got a great attendance, great sponsors,” he said.
“Next time, I think we’re probably going to look at universities and colleges, their involvement, and how do we make it (include) police, emergency services, fire services, all of those are all ideas that have come forward and that we want to take advantage of next time.”
Augellone, with Stantec, said he wanted the students to take away a sense of believing in themselves.
“Even though something seems hard, you can persevere and you can get better at it, and it becomes easier and maybe it’s something you’re passionate about,” he said.
“So, not to set any boundaries.”
