SYDNEY, N.S. — A community-university partnership that aims to guide young Nova Scotians of African heritage to STEM excellence has dug roots in Cape Breton.
Imhotep’s Legacy Academy, a non-profit organization, began as a way to tackle the under-representation of Nova Scotians of African heritage in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Their goal is to provide a platform for role models and mentors that help show young Nova Scotians of African descent that STEM is an option.
The academy was started in 2003 by Dr. Kevin Hewitt, a physics professor at Dalhousie University; Dr. Barb Hamilton-Hinch, a health professor Dalhousie University; and Mr. Wayn Hamilton, executive director of African Nova Scotian Affairs.
Today, Imhotep’s Legacy Academy works with Whitney Pier Memorial Secondary School and Sydney Academy in Cape Breton, in addition to a number of other schools across the province.
Imhotep’s Legacy Academy programming is offered to students at three levels of education. At the junior high school level, ILA offers an After-School science Program, a FIRST LEGO League robotics Program and for senior high school students there is a Virtual School tutoring Program and an ILA Coding Program. At the university level, there are undergraduate research scholarships, internships, as well as an Imhotep's Learning Community (ILC) network.
The hands-on science After-School Program is the Academy's flagship program. All of ILA's programs are currently running online and they have a number of other initiatives as well. In 2017, one of their robotics teams qualified to compete in the FIRST LEGO League Global Innovation competition in Washington, D.C. To learn more, visit ILA's website at www.dal.ca/imhotep.
Sidney Idemudia, Imhotep’s Legacy Academy’s executive director, said the connection students form with their mentors is an important part of their program. The mentors, who are studying STEM in university, are just a few years older than the students who are in secondary and high school.
“The students may not have a role model or someone who has mentored them to go into STEM, someone who looks like them. So it’s very important for us to provide them with other students or other people who look like them and are doing STEM so that they can see themselves reflected in those mentors.
“They can feel like, ‘if these guys can do it, we can do it as well.’” He notes that many of ILA’s students have remained friends with their mentors into university.
Ariel Provo, a fourth-year medical sciences student at Dalhousie University, began working as an after-school program mentor with the academy last fall after finding pandemic-induced online schooling less demanding.
She mentors every Tuesday evening and also tutors French through ILA every Wednesday. On the side, she is a member of Dal's varsity women’s basketball team.
“Being busy keeps me on track,” she said with a laugh.
Her work as an ILA program mentor for Grade 6 students is fully online right now. She receives materials in the mail every two weeks that can be used for activities with the students.
“We’ve done magnets, we’ve done natural selection, we’ve done the solar system. … And then every other week we do tutoring sessions with them.”
They’ll ask the students what concept they’re working on in school and then prepare questions to help improve their skills in that area.
She prefers teaching students online because she can reach a broader range across Nova Scotia. She considers herself both a teacher and a mentor.
“I think my favourite part would just be like seeing how engaged the kids are. At the end we ask them, 'can you tell us something you learned?' And sometimes a lot of the material can be a little complicated for their age group but … they're still able to tell us interesting concepts that they learned that you would have expected went over their heads. So, I find that part really rewarding.”
Being a tutor and mentor is also beneficial for her because she feels weekly sessions with the Grade 6s are allowing her to practise her presentation skills.
“It's also working on my leadership skills in the sense that I'm able to help guide the students and give directions and prioritize and organize students.”
She thinks organizations like Imhotep’s Legacy Academy are beneficial for the province as well.
“I just think it's a really great opportunity to present African Nova Scotian learners with the chance to improve their abilities in the STEM fields. I find that part very, very rewarding as well.”
Jessica Smith is a climate change/environmental and natural resources reporter with the Cape Breton Post.
