Interview: How one Canadian charity is encouraging young people to explore STEM
By Tim Sandle for Digital Journal
Actua — a leading Canadian charity dedicated to increasing the accessibility and uptake of STEM for youth — is exploring novel ideas to promote STEM subjects among young people, based around gifts.
Each year, Actua puts together a Codemakers gift guide for parents that is filled with creative, science-related gifts that help incite curiosity and engagement. The aim is to encourage young people to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects or careers.
To discover more about the scheme, Digital Journal caught up with Jennifer Flanagan, CEO of Actua.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
Connect with Alexis on LinkedIn