Huron College Students Compete in the RBC Bootcamp
The RBC Innovation Bootcamp is an event designed for arts, social science, and business students from Huron College at Western University. This is an annual opportunity for students to gain experience solving real-world problems for a local organization.
After a very successful partnership with Huron College to undertake the ScotiaBank Scholars Program, Huron approached the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) to be the partner organization for this year’s RBC Bootcamp.
Together, we developed statements that reflect real-world challenges faced by the UTRCA. These challenge statements addressed a variety of public-facing organizational issues, like meeting the goals of the UTRCA Environmental Targets, and facing local issues related to Climate Change. The challenge statements also included internal issues like maintaining a cohesive and collaborative workplace.
Six teams of participating students were formed, assigned a challenge, and tasked with developing an innovative solution. Opening ceremonies were held on Friday March 3rd at Huron College, where Brad Hertner greeted the students and gave an organizational overview. Over the weekend the students were welcomed to the UTRCA Watershed Conservation Centre to work on their ideas, develop their pitches, then present to a panel of UTRCA, RBC, and Huron College staff.
On Saturday, several UTRCA staff worked with the student groups during two mentoring sessions to refine their ideas and develop their pitches. Sunday afternoon, staff were back to hear the final presentations from all groups, help to judge the pitches, and choose a winner. The winning team was awarded $2500, thanks to RBC’s sponsorship.
A big thanks also goes out to Steve Musclow for preparing the WCC driveway and parking lot on Saturday morning to greet our guests after a big snowfall on Friday night.
The winning team tackled the challenge: How might we instill conservation values by providing outdoor experiences on UTRCA lands for up to 1 million people per year. This team showed an amazing ability to understand the challenge and the UTRCA in a very short period of time, and offer achievable and innovative ideas to incentivize visits and better engage visitors.
The feedback from the students, partners, and staff was overwhelmingly positive. The partnership between Huron College and the UTRCA will continue this summer with our continued participation on the ScotiaBank Scholars Program, and the UTRCA looks forward to hosting a Huron College student on as summer internship as well.
For more information on the RBC Innovation Bootcamp or any of the UTRCA/Huron College collaborations, please contact: Brad Hertner, Community Education Supervisor (acting).
The winning team with UTRCA staff.