If you aren’t familiar with it, the Innovation Mentorship Program is a way to foster a culture of innovation between the secondary school and post-secondary school levels. Research and Innovation (R&I) partners Niagara College (NC) classes with a similar high-school level class and runs the projects side by side with the same industry partner. The NC students get the opportunity to mentor the high-school students, helping them grow their leadership skills. The goal of the program is to expose high-school students to college-level experiential learning, while also getting them familiar with the overall college atmosphere, ways of learning, and more.

“The award really allowed us to continue to enhance this program,” said David DiPietro, Manager, Business Development at R&I. “When we thought of what has the highest impact for high-school students, it’s the visits to the industry partner site along with the opportunities for them to visit campus. Additional funds provide more opportunity for touchpoints with the students, exposing them to the NC environment, and getting them comfortable with being on campus, a key recruitment tactic.”

This award celebrates the outstanding efforts of NC staff and the innovative spirit of the NC community while also sharing effective practices across our organization.

Innovation involves experimentation and exploration, and through this award, the team was honoured for pushing the boundaries to improve student learning and success at NC. As part of this recognition, the team was awarded $2,500 to further the program.

The team has used the funding to increase the number of visits to NC’s campus for students, allowing for more visits to the industry partners site and provided David an opportunity to present the program this June at the 2025 CEWIL Conference.

This year’s industry partner Marsha Coppola, owner of Da Bomb! Bath Co, not only generously gave her time to the program, she has also committed to setting up a future bursary program for two students from this cohort to access next year if they attend Niagara College – a first for the program.

“This experience has meant a lot to me and my teammates. When they announced that my group won, I was on the verge of tears,” noted Abby Patterson, also known as Ivy to her friends at school, who was part of the winning team.

“It’s so exciting because I love marketing and finding ways to challenge myself. When I decided to take this course, I knew the culminating presentation was going to be challenging for me, but I knew I could do it, and I did! I got to work with awesome people, and we came up with great ideas which the industry partner clearly found useful. It’s been so rewarding and I’m so proud of myself and my team,” Abby added. She’s looking forward to potentially taking business in her post-secondary education.

“The quality of work from all groups was extraordinary, you can tell they all took the time and attention needed to be successful,” noted Paula Reile, Associate Director of the Business and Commercialization Innovation Centre, was on the expert panel of judges. “Each group had multiple great suggestions that Marsha can take and execute.”

David Vandermolen, Business / Math Teacher at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, has had his class involved in the program from the beginning. This year R&I doubled the number of high school students working on the projects, as two classes had the opportunity to participate, showing the demand and growth of the Innovation Mentorship program. Vandermolen shared that engagement levels are very high with hands-on programs such as this one because students feel like they’re actually doing something impactful and learning something that a textbook can’t necessarily teach them.

If you’re an educator and want to participate in future iterations of the Innovation Mentorship Program, or if you have a project idea you’d like us to explore, contact David, at [email protected].