Gaining insight into post-secondary education while experiencing a taste of the work world beyond high school were key motivators for the Sir Winston Churchill Grade 11 marketing class participants in the Innovation Mentorship Program.
For the 2025 winter edition, another key participant who benefitted was the external business partner on the project, Adam Gabourie, from Fonthill Family Fruit Farm.
Adam joined a panel of judges in early June for classroom presentations at Niagara College’s (NC’s) Daniel J. Patterson campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The students, joined by teacher Dave Vandermolen and SHSM lead Lars Bruschke, also faced David DiPietro, Manager, Business Development, with the NC Research and Innovation (R&I) division; Paula Reile, Associate Director, Business and Commercialization Innovation Centre; and Robert Madronic, a faculty member with NC’s School of Business.
The Innovation Mentorship Program is a way to foster a culture of innovation at the secondary school level. R&I partners NC classes with a similar high-school level class and runs the projects side by side with the same industry partner. NC students mentor the high-school students, helping them grow their leadership skills, while high school students gain exposure to college-level experiential learning. They also get more familiar with the overall college atmosphere, and ways of learning, while testing their own leadership skills through the presentations.
