A project committed to giving meaning to words

As strange as it may seem, illiteracy is a phenomenon that still exists in Québec in 2011. To help remedy the situation, a group of students at the Université de Sherbrooke has been committed, since 1996, to offering literacy and francization programs by volunteering with Frontier College. Among the wide array of projects developed by Frontier College, which has close to 100 volunteers, there’s the individual tutoring activities for adults in the process of learning to read or speak the French language and prevention activities for children, because Frontier College offers its services at day-care centres and elementary schools but also at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Sherbrooke, a health centre for seniors. Homework clubs, reading circles, individual tutoring, the Mini-journalists project, reading tents and book clubs are all methods that have been designed to make learning to read fun.

A project committed to demystifying the work of a researcher

In the current context where science programs are losing steam and have trouble recruiting new entrants, students in optics and photonics at Université Laval and the Université de Sherbrooke came up with an original and zany way of shedding light on the work of a researcher and sparking the curiosity of high school students by organizing the 3^rd edition of the Photonic Games. The goal of the competition, which takes the form of a mini Olympics, is to allow Secondary 5 students to discover the career opportunities in optics and photonics through various different activities. Calling on their resourcefulness and creativity, as well as their ability to communicate and work as a team, the Games brought together 27 teams at the last edition. The challenges included deviating a laser beam using lenses made from Jell-O and creating a game of optical mini-golf using lasers and mirrors.

A project committed to establishing a platform for sharing knowledge and values

PREP-Québec (Partage des ressources des étudiants en psychoéducation de Québec) has adopted the old saying that “alone we can go faster, but together we can go further” as their motto and applies it to each and every one of their actions. The organization was established to promote and support student commitment, favour the development of psychoeducation and improve the situation of local and international communities. To develop their projects, the team set up three different committees. Each has the task of rallying students around the various projects, which are designed beforehand in concert with local partners. These projects take various different forms, from intervention training courses for monitors to providing support to the Cardio-Maman project. A mission to a school in Cameroon in summer 2011 was even organized. The PREP-Québec volunteers also established the Café Inn PREP, which enables young teens with learning disabilities or behaviour problems to take part in a job-market training program at a genuine workplace.