Six StFX students will have the invaluable opportunity to work on projects this summer that will help provide innovative solutions to needs in their communities as recipients of the 2020 Wallace Family Internship.
Thanks to the generous support of the Wallace Family Entrepreneurship Fund, StFX Extension Innovation and Enterprise Centre has awarded the 2020 Wallace Family Internships to two individual students, Anamika Saxena and Kerilyn Kennedy, and to two teams of students, Maxwell Gauthier and Adam Starr, and to Amy Graham and Patti-Anne Tracey.
The internships are worth up to $6,000 each or $10,000 for a team to support full-time employment for 12 weeks and are for StFX students enrolled in full-time study.
The interns will work on projects that include developing a platform to better inform international students on the university, improving accessibility on the StFX campus, creating a sustainable recycling program at StFX, and creating a sexual violence prevention training program for sport organizations across Canada. Each will receive coaching from StFX staff and faculty mentors and engage in learning activities that help them explore and develop an enterprise venture.
The interns and their projects include:
Maxwell Gauthier and Adam Starr
Project: Drastic, Scholastic, Thermoplastic (DST)
Max and Adam are aiming to create and integrate a fully sustainable recycling program at StFX, one that repurposes plastic by recycling it into tangible products. Through this project, they also hope to fuel education and innovation by introducing a unique and unconventional alternative to traditional recycling. The solution involves redefining the way people and students (the major target market) recycle by providing a service, on StFX campus, where students can bring their plastic waste to be shredded, melted, and smelted into different products. The Shredder, Extruder, and Injection machines can create anything from a kitchen set to foundational materials (bricks, support beams, etc.) for a house. Blueprints for these machines can be found online from a company called “Precious Plastics.” Say Max and Adam, “We all know the common mantra ‘reduce, reuse, recycle,’ but more often than not, people skip the reduce and reuse aspect and jump right into traditional recycling. We believe that through this project, we would be integrating a unique way to reuse and recycle plastic in a sustainable manner.” Schwartz School of Business faculty Dr. Neil Maltby, who will serve as their mentor, says the Wallace Family Internship is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with students on an innovative project. “The internships are important because they provide opportunities for applied experiential learning in which students initiate, launch and manage an entrepreneurial solution to a real problem. I am very much looking forward to working with Max Gauthier and Adam Starr – they are dynamic students with aspirations to make a difference in the world.”
Anamika Saxena
Project: International Student Retention
Anamika plans to create an online community for international students to share experiences and learn about the university and university life through an online platform that has multiple modes of interaction. The platform will have the capacity to post short videos, podcasts, and blogs created by current students to inspire and motivate other students. It will also encourage mentorship between students and between students and professors via a social platform where students can ask questions about the university and have their questions answered by others who have more experience. Most importantly, the platform will supplement, in an innovative way, the university’s effort to communicate with newly arrived students and offer the potential to address the needs and questions students have. “Students are able to learn and explore new ideas through other students’ experiences,” she says. “If the platform is successful, it will lead to higher international students retention rates for the university.” Donald Rasmussen, International Student Advisor at StFX’s Office of Internationalization, is helping Anamika develop her platform. “Experiential opportunities, like those available through the StFX Innovation & Enterprise Centre, are one of the most significant benefits available to international students who choose to study at a smaller institution such as StFX,” he says. “Motivated and engaged students like Anamika are able to gain extremely valuable experience through programs such as the Wallace Family Internship, which in combination with their academic studies can provide a significant leg up when pursuing employment or entrepreneurship ventures following completion of their degrees at StFX.”
Kerilyn Kennedy
Project: Improving Accessibility
As an inclusion activist, Kerilyn is looking to consult with organizations, businesses, and municipalities in a consultant roll to improve accessibility. Her pilot project will focus on StFX campus. Accessibility on StFX campus is an ongoing problem as it can be a challenge for people with and without physical disabilities to get around. Kerilyn wants to create solutions to these barriers people face on the campus as a result of being differently abled. In 2017, the government created the Nova Scotia’s Accessibility Act, also known as Bill 59. This legislation aims to make Nova Scotia more inclusive and barrier free by 2030. In particular, the legislation states that all education centers must become fully accessible to all by 2030. This means that StFX has 10 years to make these improvements. Ms. Kennedy is mentored by Dr. Emeka Oguejiofor, a faculty member in StFX's Engineering Department.
Amy Graham and Patti-Anne Tracey
Project: An Intervention on Sexual Violence in Sport Organizations
Through research in the field of health, leadership, and policy, Patti-Anne and Amy aim to create a sexual violence prevention and awareness package for sports organizations across Canada to be included as part of mandatory training for athletes and all members in leadership positions. This innovation could lead to critical sexual violence policy changes among sport associations across Canada, as well as provide a foundation of educational awareness to create safer environments for athletes. “We intend for the results from this research to build on previous research in this area and will contribute to developing an approach for evaluating sport organizations in terms of their awareness and protection of the well-being of Nova Scotians and Canadians who are impacted by sexual violence in sport,” they say. Amy and Patti-Anne are mentored by StFX human kinetics professor Dr. Angie Kolen and Heather Blackburn, the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Advocate for the Health, Counseling and Accessible Learning Departments at StFX. Says Dr. Kolen, “I am delighted, and privileged, to be working with Amy and Patti-Anne—two bright, female student-athletes who are eager to make a difference in preventing sexualized violence. The Wallace Family Internship provides Patti-Anne and Amy, and others, with a unique educational experience and opportunity to develop and enhance skills important for their next steps in life as they focus their efforts on self-determined projects they are passionate about.” Ms. Blackburn says Amy and Patti-Ann are passionate about making adults working with youth in sport more informed about sexualized violence. “As varsity athletes, they identified a need in their community and the Wallace Internship program is a perfect opportunity to develop an innovative solution to that need that will raise awareness, prevent harm and ultimately contribute to an important shift in athletic culture. Their passion, commitment and determination is so exciting, and a bit contagious,” she says.
