Université de Sherbrooke presents its 2018 Forces Avenirs nominees

Student Life Services at the Université de Sherbrooke (U de S) has announced its nominations for this year’s edition of the Forces Avenirs competition, an annual inter-university competition that has honoured student volunteer commitment since 1999. The U de S International Engineering Group’s Tanzania Irrigation Channels project will be running in the Mutual Aid, Peace and Justice category for its construction of 650 meters of irrigation canals in the village of Dirim, Tanzania. About 100 families will benefit from the project that provides water access to nearly 20 hectares of new land. The group, in collaboration with local partners, also bought land for the creation of a women’s cooperative in Dirim, allowing them to earn an income of their own. In the same category, the Ici on est inclusif project is a provincial sexual and gender diversity awareness campaign initiated by students at the New Brunswick Medical Education Center. A poster competition was launched in French-language high schools across the province to identify the poster that will serve as the focus of the campaign and a video and accompanying materials were also produced on how to become an ‘ally’ and create an inclusive environment for sexual and gender diversity. The Ici on est inclusif campaign is now being introduced in 28 high schools, 12 organizations, and 3 medical clinics. In the Environment category, U de S will rely on Itin'ERE, an environmental education workshop aimed at developing the capacity for action and environmental values in students in primary grades 5 and 6. Initiated by environmental studies students Vincent Boisclair and Rémi Proteau, Itin'ERE has reached more than 1,000 students and 50 teachers in eight administrative regions of Quebec. The BistroBrain project will be analyzed in the Society, Communication and Education category. Since March 2017, the BistroBrain group has organized popular science events in Sherbrooke to promote science and new perspectives on research projects. At these events, Sherbrooke organizations are invited to present their mission as well as the importance of research in their community. See full story in the Friday, May 4th edition of The Record.