Founded by a Waterloo engineering student and a Waterloo science student as a senior-year project in 1990, the program is now one of Canada’s largest science and engineering summer camps for students between Grades 1 to 9.
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Time: 7:30 to 11 a.m. – speeches begin at 8 a.m. and tour of ESQ camp tours begin at 9:30 a.m.
Location: Sedra Student Design Centre, Engineering 5, University of Waterloo.
ESQ runs multiple summer camps on the main Waterloo campus for boys and girls entering Grades 1 to 9. It also offers March break, Winter break, after school and weekend programs, as well as various in-school and community initiatives. Satellite programming is provided in various rural and aboriginal locations throughout Ontario.
ESQ fills over 2,500 spots in its summer camps and reaches over 7,000 youth through its workshop programs.
This past weekend, ESQ staff members engaged hundreds of children in engineering and science activities at the Pan Am games in Toronto - the only program of its kind to be part of the games.
Last year, ESQ was awarded the 2013 Actua & GE Canada Award for Leadership and Innovation in science and technology education. The honour recognized ESQ’s dedication to high impact quality programs, ongoing leadership and supportive engagement of Canada’s most underserved youth.
One of the speakers at the 25th anniversary celebration is Michelle Miller, who was a science student when she cofounded the camp in the fall of 1990. Miller, now a secondary school teacher, said she wasn’t prepared for the massive amount of work that needed to be done to launch the two ESQ camps for youth in Grades 5 and 6 the following summer.
“But it was all worthwhile,” recalled Miller. “We especially loved the aha moments the kids experienced.”
Also speaking at the event is Mary Wells, the Faculty of Engineering’s Associate Dean of Outreach.
“ESQ’s approach is simple: put science and technology in the hands of students,” said Wells. “This ignites their natural curiosity to explore the science behind their world and cultivates a commitment to lifelong learning, discovery and entrepreneurship.”
