Student Success and Business Teacher Emily Li Causi (left) and Guidance Councillor Matt Biggley (right) talk about the creation of the e-STEAM program for students at Tecumseh Vista Academy, June 22, 2017. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)Student Success and Business Teacher Emily Li Causi (left) and Guidance Councillor Matt Biggley (right) talk about the creation of the e-STEAM program for students at Tecumseh Vista Academy, June 22, 2017. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Windsor

Tecumseh Students Combining Technology And Business

A new program at Tecumseh Vista Academy could help fill the skilled trades gap in Windsor and Essex County.

Guidance Councillor Matt Biggley helped to create e-STEAM, which is an entrepreneurship program focusing on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.  It will launch at the beginning of the new school year.

"There's a huge push, both from the federal government and national non-profits, for youth entrepreneurship and STEAM skill-building," he explains. "So we're really excited to be the first secondary school, that we know of, to combine these two ideas together."

Biggley says students in Grades 9 through 12 will have the chance to take part in the e-STEAM program.

One example of a project the students could work includes creating a new recycling program at the school.

"This can then involve thinking from across the STEAM fields and the entrepreneurship fields as well, as students grapple with potential solutions to that," describes Biggley.

He and Student Success and Business Teacher Emily Li Causi started working on e-STEAM 14-months ago, after hearing that nearly 90% of high school students at Tecumseh Vista wanted to pursue careers in STEAM-related fields or entrepreneurship.

The Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce reported earlier this year that the local economy was losing out on $600-million annually because of a lack of skilled trades workers.

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