ROCHE CANADA: STEM INITIATIVE LAUNCH

BridgeTO Youth had the honour of being invited to the well-known pharmaceutical company, Roche Canada’s head office in Mississauga for the launch of their STEM initiative. 

Here’s what our students had to say about why they signed up for the event:

One student said, “I signed up for this event to see if I was interested in the sciences. From this event, I learned that science and the STEM field are the future and it can open up so many opportunities. This event helped me realize the sciences are definitely something I would be interested in.”

Another student attended this event in hopes to improve their risk analysis skill so that they can carefully assess potential risks and provide solutions for them in everyday life. The Roche event showed this student that these skills are not only essential in the work environment, but in all aspects of life. They believe having this skill and knowing how to implement it will help them configure the best potential solutions to their daily problems.

We asked our students for a breakdown of the event and here is how they described it:

The Roche event was all about showing “the type of sciences out there and about the lives of the people in these science fields.” Throughout the event, the students received presentations on quality risk management, what potential risks look like, the causes of said risks, making a plan of action and using risk management tools. The event also included various activities which the students say broadened their way of thinking. They were given everyday-life scenarios containing potential risks. One example of this that a student mentioned was finding a banana peel on the floor. After individually assessing the risks of the scenarios, the students shared their various ideas with the entire group. 

Another task the students conducted was working in small groups to sort fictitious batches of ingredients for cookies. Based on their given ingredients and a set of evaluation criteria, they assessed the quality to determine what could and could not be used for the cookies. This activity prepared them for their next activity of assessing ingredients that were to be used in drugs. One group of students said their best approach to identifying which were the best batches was to establish that if they released batches that contained defects, there would be serious consequences to follow. The goal of the activity was to help the students identify, through critical thinking, which batches met the evaluation criteria to be released. 

When asked about the opportunity to network and ask questions, the students said they were glad to see and talk to individuals in science fields other than nurses and doctors. Overall, BridgeTO students were very satisfied with this magnificent event held by Roche Canada and their biggest takeaway was how different people may approach scenarios from different perspectives and still come up with effective plans of action for a scenario showing them that that looking at multiple points of view can create the best plan of action. 

Thank you Roche Canada for sparking interest in STEM in our youth!