A new mentorship program at the University of Saskatchewan, which seeks to increase the number of Indigenous women in mining related professions, received a more than $130,000 boost Wednesday.
The investment comes courtesy of the Saskatchewan mining industry and via the International Minerals Innovation Institute.
Along with the university and industry, the Saskatoon Tribal Council is also a partner in the MentorSTEP program.
The program includes research internships, professional engagement events, Indigenous cultural ceremonies, learning labs, site visits, networking and career development.
Merle Massie, the coordinator of undergraduate research at the U of S, said the money will enable the university to offer enhanced mentorship programming with an Indigenous focus.
This means incorporating traditional ways of learning into the industry, she said.
“We make sure that each one of our learning events that happen each month engages both an Indigenous science component to balance any of the Western science that we do. So today, we have a rock lab over in geology and we have some rock teachings that are going to be part of that.”
So far, 14 U of S students have signed on for the program but Massie says there is a lot of room to expand this number.
A total of 30 mentors from the mining industry have expressed interest in volunteering for MentorSTEP.
Also as part of the program, U of S students will serve as mentors to Indigenous female high school students in the Saskatoon area.
MentorSTEP is a two-year pilot project and the next round of intakes will be in summer 2020 with deadline for research intern applications this February.
Massie said women, as a whole, are vastly underrepresented in the mining industry and STC has identified it as particular area the tribal council would like to see more support for Indigenous females wanting to pursue careers in the field.
“About 17 per cent of people who work in the mining industry are women, but of that 17 per cent, a high proportion are not in technical positions and so that’s already a gap that’s been identified. For Indigenous women to be in STEM, Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand has identified there’s a space where they would like to see some more push and support for Indigenous women to pursue STEM careers.”
MentorSTEP is part of the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, educational program.
(PHOTO: Lisa Mooney of Nutrien speaks at the launch of the University of Saskatchewan’s MentorSTEP program on Oct. 16. Photo by Fraser Needham.)