From the Nominator

"Born out of the realization that the pandemic has a greater negative impact on young women’s high school education and adds yet another barrier to entry to STEM tertiary education, the University of Waterloo’s Women in Engineering Outreach department rapidly launched a free physics, calculus, and chemistry tutoring program operated by first- and second-year engineering interns. 

“Hive Mind” quickly became a go-to resource for hundreds of high school students who struggled with remote learning and school closures. With one-to-one or small online group sessions, the “near-peer” learning assistants--as the engineering interns were dubbed--self-organized the instructional modules based on the high school curriculum they recently completed while also experiencing pandemic online learning. With human-led virtual sessions on physics, calculus, and chemistry, droves of students in under-resourced school boards signed up for the free during and after-school help.

Launched in January 2021, more than 1,100 students took advantage of these free learning sessions, with the majority being young women looking to bolster their understanding of fundamental concepts. Not only did hundreds of at-risk high school students benefit (and some middle-schoolers), but the engineering interns experienced fulfilling, challenging four-month work terms when paid internships were scarce. 

Importantly, Hive Mind is open to any student interested in improving their grades to apply to any college or university. Waterloo Engineering agnostic, the Hive Mind has become an effective program to ameliorate the profound effects remote learning under pandemic conditions has on girls, women, and vulnerable communities, with male allies included."

From the Judges

The University of Waterloo has taken an innovative approach to inspiring future STEM leaders (and perhaps prospective students!?) through engagement of their students. This model shows the importance of reaching back and paying it forward. It appears to have been a big lift and well done. This program could easily serve as a model for other schools.