Creating opportunities and a welcoming community

Video Transcript

Lassonde is dedicated to creating an environment where innovation and inclusion go hand in hand. To drive impactful solutions to complex challenges, we are drawing on diverse perspectives, ensuring every community member has a chance to make meaningful contributions.  

Advancing this vision requires collaboration and a deep commitment to decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion (DEDI) – principles we strive to integrate in everything we do. For example, this year, Lassonde’s EDI Seed Funding program has supported community members in developing five new projects that are helping make the School a more diverse, inclusive and welcoming space. 

Student and faculty engagement remains a top priority, and in 2023-24, we expanded opportunities for students in impactful ways. We launched the Lassonde Distinguished Speaker Series, bringing in leading experts from diverse fields to share their insights and promote interdisciplinary collaboration.  

We also continued to host key events like the Lassonde Undergraduate Summer Research Conference and the Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology (BEST) Startup Experience, providing platforms for students to showcase their innovative projects and ideas. This year’s NSERC CREATE annual summit was a standout event, drawing numerous attendees, including NSERC President Alejandro Adem.  

Our commitment to hands-on learning was further emphasized through a wide range of experiential opportunities, where students developed and tested cutting-edge technologies, from nanosatellites to self-driving cars. Through our fully work-integrated degree program, Canada’s first, students are empowered to work in industry while earning their degrees, thereby removing financial barriers and expanding access to underrepresented groups in STEM. 

In addition to supporting our current students, we are creating pathways for future students to join Lassonde. Through initiatives like our k2i academy, we collaborate with school boards, industry and community organizations to address persistent STEM inequities, extending our reach to thousands of students.  

Discover how Lassonde is creating opportunities and a welcoming community. 

Key Highlights

A Scrabble board with tiles spelling out the words "SUCCEED," "TEAM," and "LEAD," arranged intersecting each other on various score tiles like "Triple Word Score" and "Double Letter Score."

Lassonde’s k2i academy creates co-op leadership opportunities

The Lassonde ‘Bringing STEM to Life’ program is designed for high school students who may not have taken the prerequisites needed to pursue STEM programs and careers, particularly focusing on uplifting students from marginalized communities. Offering paid summer research opportunities for students in grades 10 through 12, this initiative opens doors while providing invaluable experiences for Lassonde students to serve as mentors. These mentors, often from diverse backgrounds and a range of Lassonde’s programs, develop leadership skills by guiding high schoolers through impactful research projects. This program aligns with Lassonde’s strategic focus on creating opportunities and fostering a welcoming community, benefiting both the young students, who gain early exposure to STEM, and the mentors, who build essential professional skills.

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Key Highlight

kindergarten to industry academy

The k2i academy is an innovation sandbox where diverse communities and collaborators connect, engage, and design solutions to systemic barriers to STEM opportunities to transform educational and career pathways for underrepresented youth, including women, non-gender conforming people, Black youth, and Indigenous youth in STEM. k2i academy brings STEM to life by working alongside school boards and community to offer science, engineering, and computer science programming in classrooms with teachers, providing innovative work-integrated learning experiences, and partnering with community organizations to provide unique, hands-on STEM opportunities.
Learn more about k2i

k2i

academy’s impact since 2020:

$8.5M+

in funds raised to support k2i academy programs

$5.844M

in support received from the federal and provincial government funding

80,000+

students, teachers and families served through more than 340,000 hours in k2i academy education

525

high school students employed in work-integrated learning opportunities, with 100% earning high school credits and achieving course medians of over 90%

175

undergraduate STEM student mentors employed by k2i academy

“Our society needs strong leaders, creative problem solvers, and innovative thinkers to tackle today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s. Creating educational experiences with meaningful learning outcomes is critical.”–

– Lassonde Dean Jane Goodyer, from the article Lassonde Educational Innovation Studio and k2i academy’s collaboration to bring innovation to education

key highlight

Digital Technologies Program

Digital Technologies Program

The Digital Technologies (DT) program at the Lassonde School of Engineering is a four-year degree program for aspiring technology solutions professionals. Students work full-time in annual contract employment while studying toward an academic degree. They spend 80% of the program applying what they’ve learned in the workplace, and the other 20% is dedicated to academics, including half-a-day of independent study once a week and six five-day block periods on campus per year. The program has exceeded expectations, as demonstrated by a 100% student contract renewal rate. Since launching in September 2023, the program’s early findings reveal strong performance and student success, with positive feedback from students and employers, like Alstom, BMO, dayforce, OPG, Quanser and Shopify.
Learn more about the Digital Technologies Program

100%

student contract renewal rate

15

industry employers

1st

program of its kind in Canada

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