FOUNDATON FEATURE
challenges young people to use engineering strategies to solve problems they find in novels. “I thought it was such a cool idea, to combine reading with engineering and design,” says the Fort McMurray resident and Suncor professional. Ms. Wilson-Iherjirika reached out to Tufts and received permission to adapt the university’s concept. The university even provided online training. The delivery vehicle in Alberta would be an organization she’d previously founded, called the BrainSTEM Alliance . Ideal for the job, BrainSTEM is a network of consultants — all of them volunteers — who work with not-for-profit organizations, charities, and educational institutions to create and customize curricula for youth in STEM, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Ms. Wilson-Iherjirika was partway through develop- ing READesign when the now-notorious 2016 wildfire ravaged Fort McMurray. Everyone there was affected in some way — Ms. Wilson-Iherjirika lost her home. Children, of course, are among any community’s most vulnerable residents in times of crisis. Yet from this mass evacuation and destruction arose a bright idea. “I thought it would be good to tie this new program to the relief efforts here, as well as in High River, which was rebuilding after the 2013 floods in southern Alberta,” Ms. Wilson-Iherjirika explains. READesign would offer a happy distraction from the stresses children faced, while restoring and building their confidence by allowing them to tackle new chal- lenges and make new friends. HIGH RIVER’S NEXT CHAPTER After the floods, the High River Library had become an important community hub. It was there, in the fall of 2016, that Ms. Wilson-Iherjirika and the BrainSTEM Alliance piloted their new program. Financial support from the APEGA Foundation, the Alberta Women’s Science Network, and the Suncor Energy Foundation made the pilot possible, and volunteer help came from APEGA professionals like Gillian Hurst, P.Eng. A mechanical engineer at Agrium, Ms. Hurst learned of the BrainSTEM Alliance in a winter 2015 PEG article about the organization’s first program, Operation SMART, which features female mentors introducing 10-to-14-year-old girls to
WILL THIS DO THE TRICK? A High River READesign participant shows off her solution for a “client” she found in Matthew and the Midnight Tow Truck. -photo courtesy BrainSTEM Alliance
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