Tag Archives: Women in Nuclear

Guest Blog

Getting Girls Energized about Science and Engineering

March 25, 2013 – 08:34

Today’s post comes from guest contributor Cheryl Cottrill, Executive Director of Women in Nuclear-Canada.  

WiN-Canada (Women in Nuclear) hosted Camp GEMS (Girls in Engineering Math and Science) for two full day March Break camps last week at the Bruce Power Visitors’ Centre.  The sessions are meant to provide a fun, hands-on experience, using science, math and engineering principles, with a female mentor who has been successful in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) careers.  It’s done to awaken a life-long passion for science and ignite scientific curiosity, so campers will ask intelligent questions around issues like climate change and energy options, and possibly go on to study STEM subjects post-secondary.  In Canada, only an estimated 21% of students enrolled in applied science and engineering are women.

Day one’s theme, All in a Bug’s Life, centered on insects and taught the 25 girls attending about different types and characteristics of insects. They learned about the two types of metamorphosis, a process of dramatic change in a body form during a lifespan, which can be complete or incomplete.  Day two’s theme, Enzymes – Step on it! took the girls through two experiments: Jello Meets Pineapple, to see how the pineapple, acting as an enzyme on the jello substrate, changed the ability of the jello to set and an experiment using controlled quantities of raw potatoes immersed in hydrogen peroxide to initiate a chemical reaction.

These events are hosted by Women in Nuclear and have become well known and supported in the community. This energizing and welcomed approach to engaging young women into science, technology, engineering and math is creating a pathway for their future endeavours, and should help to bring more young Canadians into the excellent careers offered by our nuclear industries.

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Nuclear Pride Uncategorized

A look at the Women-in-Mining and -Nuclear Sask Networking Event

January 2, 2013 – 09:46
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Great turn out at the WiM/WiN Networking Event

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Member of WiM and WiN Saskatchewan get together to make connections and have fun.

Thanks to the Saskatchewan Geological Society(SGS), Women in Mining & Women in Nuclear Saskatchewan had a second successful networking event this year.  WIM/WiN-SK was recently launched in June of this year.  The SGS provided the room and advertising at the SGS annual conference.  More than 60 women attended the event which also saw an increase in memberships!  Thanks to all the sponsors who made the event so successful and to all the people who attended the event.

 

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Nuclear Pride

WiN-Canada Profiles CNA Chief, Heather Kleb

December 20, 2012 – 09:00

Heather Kleb, VP, Canadian Nuclear Association

Women-in-Nuclear Canada does a great job of highlighting opportunities for, and raising the profile of, women in the nuclear industry. One way they do this is with the “Women of WiN” page on their website.

Visit the page to meet some of our industry’s interesting, skilled, talented, and amazing women. But wait, here’s one now!

WiN is profiling our interim President and CEO, Heather Kleb. Heather’s busy wearing two hats these days; she’s Acting President at CNA but also responsible for directing CNA regulatory affairs on behalf of all our industry members.

Learn about Heather at WinCanada.org or read on below.

Heather Kleb
Title: Vice President
Company: Canadian Nuclear Association

As Vice President at the Canadian Nuclear Association, Heather Kleb helps create a positive public, political, and regulatory environment for Canada’s nuclear industry. Heather started her career in the nuclear field as an environmental scientist nearly ten years ago.

In this role, she participated in regulatory hearings where she observed first-hand how public perceptions about nuclear energy can affect the industry and the communities where we operate. Now, in a senior role at the CNA, she has the opportunity to address these perceptions and promote the nuclear industry within Canada and abroad.

Before nuclear, Heather spent nearly a decade working in mining and other industries after completing her Masters in Science in Ecology at the University of Regina. During these early years, Heather was mentored by a female biologist who greatly influenced her career. It was this experience that motivated her to become involved with Women in Nuclear.

As a member of WiN, Heather is able to support the success of women within the industry and to further her career through interactions with other industry professionals.

Created December 17, 2012

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Messages Nuclear Outreach

WiN-Canada 9th Annual Conference

October 15, 2012 – 09:37

Kick start your career  into full gear this fall by attending the 9th Annual WiN-Canada Conference on Thursday, October 25 at the Davidson Centre in Kincardine.

Registration for the conference is up and running. Please check out the educational and inspirational program put together by your conference organizing committee from WiN-Bruce. The focus of the conference is to support your personal journey through nuclear and related industries and help you to visualize and develop your career through personal reflection, inclusive discussion and interactive programming.

The link to the conference webpage is: http://www.wincanada.org/event/wincanadas-9th-annual-conference

The theme for this year’s conference is ‘WiNspire the Future – Re-energize your personal goals and career development.’ The conference will cover a wide range of very inspirational speakers providing their insights on how we can best plan for our own success and enhance our contribution to the nuclear industry. The morning will open with an address from Duncan Hawthorne, President and CEO of Bruce Power and will also include technical sessions on waste management and nuclear medicine, as well as an opportunity to discover your personality DNA and better understand human behaviour.

In the afternoon we will run concurrent professional development sessions that feature topics on technical writing and interview skills. We will also hear from our members on a variety of topics during a series of mini-sessions, all focussed on professional development. We will also have a session lead by our WiN President, Colleen Sidford, on developing SMART Development Plans. This not to be missed session will take you through understanding your strengths and how to leverage them for career success.
Amber MacArthur, hailed by Canadian Business Magazine as Canada’s top social media expert and a best selling social media author, speaker, TV host and entrepreneur will deliver our keynote address leading us through the art of personal branding and providing you with seven steps to master your own digital personal brand.

This year, delegates will have the opportunity to choose one of  four tours to Bruce Power Station; Bruce Power Station B; Western Waste Management Facility (WWMF) and Core Storage Facility – Interim and Long-Term Management of Low and Intermediate Level Waste – Ontario Power Generation; and the Emergency Management Centre and Bruce Site Tour. These tours will take place the morning of Friday, October 26. Space is limited for each of the technical tours, so please register early to avoid disappointment. Registration for the tours will only be open until October 11.

If you are a student, we have a student program to offer 6 post-secondary and 4 secondary students free registration to our conference. Please check out the application form http://www.wincanada.org/news/student-program-for-wincanada-conference. The deadline for submissions is Friday, September 21. Travel expenses will be the responsibility of the student.

Due to the conference being held in October we will not be offering a golf tournament this year, however, we have two not to miss networking opportunities. The opening reception, which is offered on Wednesday, October 24, at an additional charge will be held at Kincardine’s oldest building, The Walker House and will feature local history and local flavours sure to satisfy your dinner appetite. The free closing reception, hosted and sponsored by Sisters in Society at the Best Western Governors’ Inn will take place on Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. The reception will feature key note speaker, Donna Messer, the “Queen of Networking” and an author and formal broadcaster. Donna will take you through the art of effective networking and provide you with ten tips to work a room.

Accommodation information is also available on the WiN website for those who are travelling.

The conference will provide activities and sessions designed to instill confidence and leave you feeling energized and motivated to enhance your individual and collective contributions in the broader nuclear community. It will be a very inspirational day full of learning and networking opportunities.

To help you succeed in the industry, don’t forget to register for the conference and one of the tours.

See you October 24-26!

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Nuclear Education Nuclear Outreach

Taking the Grocery Store Conversation Online

October 1, 2012 – 05:13

Last Wednesday, I was invited to speak to a group of Women-in-Nuclear (WiN) members from the Eastern-Ontario chapter at AECL in Chalk River. We got together to “talk nuclear,” but more specifically, how to talk nuclear on social media.

With the WiN Eastern Chapter Executives. L to R: Bev Kidd, Laura Allardyce (me), Solly Karivelil, and Anne Giardini

There is a lot of interest in social media among members of the nuclear industry, among people who are enthusiastic about the work they do, the technology they support, and the communities in which they live and do this impassioned work. There is a lot of pride in Canada’s nuclear industry – pride in our home grown, low-carbon CANDU technology, in the development of nuclear medicine technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic cancer treatments, and in how safe our operations are every day and for the last 50+ years. We want to share our stories with the rest of Canada and the world.

Social media is people having conversations online. It’s the same as meeting your neighbor in the grocery store and chatting about your day. The only difference is, it’s a bigger grocery store and you’re bumping into more neighbors. The stories you tell online are the same ones you would tell your neighbors.

We shouldn’t be afraid to show our pride online, to share interesting information on Facebook, to tweet a link to a good news story on Twitter, or to tell our own story on a blog.

As the keeper of the community (I maintain the TalkNUclear channels on Facebook, Twitter, this blog, etc), I have a lot of discussions about using social media strategically. I think this can sometimes get us confused about what the purpose of social media is, which is this: at the end of the day, social media is about relationships, not transactions. We are not talking to Canadians to get them to buy more nuclear, we’re not selling a product. What we are doing is talking to Canadians about the mutually beneficial relationship we’re engaged in. Our industry produces low-carbon energy, medical technologies, food and materials safety advancements – all of these things that benefits Canadians every day. Our social media strategy is just to talk to Canadians about these incredible benefits, just like we all do when we run into our neighbors at the grocery store.

A good place to start is with us. There are so many ways to “Talk Nuclear”

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Guest Blog Nuclear Education Nuclear Outreach

Connecting science to girls’ everyday life!

August 2, 2012 – 14:15

Our thanks to Cheryl Cottrill for this guest post about the GIRLS Day Camps, where girls get hands-on learning experiences in the areas of engineering, math, and science, with the help of some real-life STEM career female mentors.

Connecting science to girls’ everyday life!
By Cheryl Cottrill, Executive Director of WiN-Canada

Extracting chocolate chips from cookies to show the principles of mining and making a model of the eye using a balloon, markers and an egg carton were just a couple of activities undertaken at two separate week-long GIRLS (Girls in Real Life Science) Day Camps in Tiverton, Ontario in July.

Hands-on experiments, using materials that can be found around any household, were enjoyed by a group of 25 girls aged 8-13 at each of the camps. The camps facilitated by Women in Nuclear (WiN)-Canada‘s Bruce chapter and subsidized by Bruce Power invited the expertise of Camp GEMS (Girls Engineering Math Science) (http://www.gemscamp.org) to deliver the program for the camp.

WiN’s partnership with Camp GEMS is a perfect fit as both organizations share the same philosophy around getting girls excited in science, math and engineering.  The GIRLS Science Camp provides a fun, hands-on experience, using science, math and engineering principles, with a female mentor who has been successful in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) careers and connects science to everyday life. All this is done to awaken a life-long passion for science and ignite scientific curiosity so campers will ask intelligent questions around issues like climate change and energy options and hopefully go on to study these STEM subjects post-secondary. In Canada, only an estimated 21% of students enrolled in applied science and engineering are women.

Mentors from Bruce Power, Ontario Power Generation and Ian Martin Limited helped out each day providing the girls with female role models who are successful in science and technology.

One of the campers summed it up best, “GEMS helped me understand science in a very fun way.”

Additional information and pictures from the camp may be found on the WiN-Canada website at www.wincanada.org.

Amber Splettstoesser (L), 11, Maddy Edey, 10, Jacqueline Shaw, 11, and Chloe Wheeler, 12, all of Kincardine, proudly stand with the poster they made at the GEMS Camp held this week at the Whitney Crawford Community Centre, Tiverton

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