Come July, up to 80 grade school students will be arriving on St. Thomas University’s campus to participate in a program that will give them opportunities to work with the university.
Recently announced as the 26th university partner with Shad Canada, STU is going to offer students who are heading into grade 11 and 12 the opportunity to live on campus for a month.
The university’s VP of Enrollment Management Ryan Sullivan said that the program was something that the university’s President Nauman Farooqi pushed for when he first came to STU in 2023.
“It gives us an opportunity to expose students to St. Thomas, for them to understand the benefits of coming here, it’s a great opportunity,” said Sullivan.
Students will experience guest lectures from faculty and experiential learning within the community including science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM).
The program will operate with fully scheduled days for students throughout the month, but they will not be in class for the entire day. Sullivan says that they will be doing alternative activities alongside the “intense program” over the time they’re on campus.
“They’ll essentially have an experience that’s kind of similar to living here during the academic year, they’ll have activities through the day and in the evenings,” said Sullivan.
Sullivan said that STU will have to be more focused on the arts component of STEAM due to the courses offered by the university. He mentions that the university will try to incorporate some of the programs that it offers, such as environment and society and social entrepreneurship.
He also pointed out that faculty have expressed a “keen interest” in being involved within the program, whether it’s through regular activities or events such as guest lectures.
People within the Fredericton community will also be given the opportunity to be employed by the university as Shad Canada program assistants, where they will be leaders, advisors and mentors to the students throughout the month, according to Sullivan.
Applications for students to join the program closes on Dec. 1. Once Shad Canada receives all of the submissions, they will go through and assign students to campuses around the country depending on their interests.
Sullivan said that the university hopes that the students who come to STU will be encouraged to come back to the university after high school.
“This is a good partnership for us, no matter what. I think the alignment of our interests and values is certainly strong,” said Sullivan. “At the end of the day, if we have a cohort of grade 11 and 12 students spending a month with us on campus, there’s certainly potential benefit there for us to see them want to stay with us.”
