For 20-year-old Kudeeja Javed, representation matters. As a woman and a visible minority, she knows she has an important role as she returns for her second year as a leader at Launch, a camp run by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering.

“I definitely feel good that campers can see a girl like me leading,” Javed says. “For the young girls in the camp who are maybe nervous, seeing other female leaders makes them more comfortable to try.”

The STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) have the fastest rate of job growth in Canada, yet a Brookfield report from 2018 found that women’s participation in the tech sector has remained between 23 per cent and 25 per cent for well over a decade.

To offset these numbers, a goal of this Fresh Air Fund-supported camp at Dundas Junior Public School is to introduce a traditionally male-based discipline to young girls in hopes of motivating them to pursue a future in STEM. Girls make up half the campers in the program. The instructors are all current undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering.

In addition to the daily camps, U of T’s Engineering also hosts a special all-girls program for students from Grade 3 to 5 on Saturdays led by female instructors and mentors.

It all happens at a new high-tech “makerspace” classroom at the South Riverdale school, built with financial support from Actua Canada, Google Canada and CanCode. First-year engineering students acted as “consultants” with a Grade 1 class to help design the classroom.

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“The camp and school are dedicated to getting more women in engineering,” Dundas Junior teacher Michael Waldman says, “and the staff and campers are having a great time doing it.”

For camper Sheldyn Andie Shessel, her favourite activities so far have been making a boat, and a prosthetic hand.

“The female leaders make it fun when we do crafts and solve problems,” she says. “They inspire me by telling me to try again if something doesn’t work and to try another method.”

Sheldyn says thanks to the camp, she’d consider becoming an engineer when she grows up. “I want to help other kids solve problems and inspire them as well.”

For these students, some of whom come from the city’s most marginalized neighbourhoods, including Moss Park and Regent Park, it’s a valuable experience at a time when Toronto and York school boards are being forced to cut STEM classes this fall, because of Ontario’s new policy of larger class sizes. Of 313 cancelled classes at the Toronto District School Board, 80 of them are STEM courses, the Star recently reported.

“I think giving kids these opportunities, particularly for free, is even more important now with the provincial government making cuts to education that are leading to the cancellations of these programs,” Waldman adds.

“Even at the elementary school level, cutting support staff positions makes it much harder for teachers to take the time needed to implement STEM lessons in the class.”

Beyond the curriculum, Waldman adds that he’s seen his students learn interpersonal skills through STEM, like asking questions, working together, and problem-solving.

“I do want to be an engineer when I grow up. I think it’s fun to make stuff and I’m getting a lot of experience,” student Konstantin Hrothgar says. “It’s really inspiring. This camp staff are awesome, you never get bored.”

GOAL: $650,000

TO DATE: $443,564

HOW TO DONATE

With your donation, the Fresh Air Fund can help send 25,000 disadvantaged and special needs children to camp. The experience gives these children much more than relief from summer heat — it gives these children a break in life and memories to last a lifetime.

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