The BrainReach mission | Program details | Volunteer | Information for partners
The BrainReach mission
BrainReach/ Mission: Cerveau is an award-winning, non-profit, community outreach program managed by Intergrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN) graduate students with the goal of giving them the opportunity to educate young students from challenged neighborhoods around Montreal. While providing fun, interactive supplementary education to pupils, BrainReach also gives IPN graduate students a chance to create or give presentations at either the elementary or high school level.
S.U.N. is proud to partner with the IPN to make BrainReach available to the wider community. Learn more about the program on the BrainReach website.
Program Details
- Host Faculty/Dept.: Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN)
- Main contact: Josephine.Nalbantoglu [at] mcgill.ca (Dr. Josephine Nalbantoglu)
- Outreach website: BrainReach website
- Languages offered: English and French
- Year established: 2011
- Location and timeline: Mostly Off Campus, runs from October to June.
- Collaborative partners: Many from EMSB, SWLSB, LBPSB, and French schools in Montreal and Chambly.
Volunteer
Time commitment
Students can spend as little as one hour per month presenting a workshop, and maybe two to three hours reviewing and familiarizing themselves with the material. Many volunteers spend much more time than this if they become part of the committees, which organize the program, or develop the presentations.
Why volunteer?
Volunteers get a sense of fulfillment from helping kids; the kids can be a lot of fun too. More importantly, the students get training and experience in teaching and working with kids. For some, this is very valuable as there are not a lot of academic jobs out there for the graduate students.
If you'd like to get involved, please contact ipnbrainreach [at] gmail.com (IPN BrainReach).
Information for partners
How the program impacts teaching and learning
- Teachers get to supplement their teaching, get new ideas for activities.
- By getting the kids interested in science early, we hope that the quest for knowledge will stay with them. Further, since learning about the brain is learning about themselves, we hope they will continue to show an interest in education.
- The children develop an understanding of what it is to be a scientist, thereby increasing the number of potential university applicants.
To access the program, contact IPN Director Josephine.Nalbantoglu [at] mcgill.ca (Dr. Josephine Nalbantoglu).