Indigenous youth in BC and AB empowered through STEM innovation learning
Calgary – May 12, 2025 – The MindFuel Foundation (MindFuel) is pleased to announce the second round of funding approved by Drax, a UK-based renewable energy company, whose international operations also include Canada. Through the charitable arm, Drax Foundation, MindFuel has received $100,000 CAD in grant funding in support of “Tech Futures Challenge: Expansion of Empowering Indigenous & Under-served Youth in BC and AB”, a program that delivers STEM and innovation skills development to youth, with focus on Indigenous youth and rural communities.
MindFuel’s mission to ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) in youth and inspire them to shape our future by becoming the problem-solvers of tomorrow is well aligned with one of the focus areas of the Drax Foundation, “improving equitable access to STEM education”. Over the past five years, MindFuel has worked closely with many Indigenous communities, schools and organizations, including the Dene Tha’ First Nation and Northland School Division in Alberta and Tsay Keh Dene Nation in British Columbia, bringing technology and science into their schools and opening opportunities for Indigenous youth to explore possibilities for learning and reaching their full potential through STEM and innovation.
“I’d like to thank the Drax Foundation for its generous and continued support of our STEM innovation programming,” says Cassy Weber, CEO, MindFuel. “In our recent 10-year study, we learned that 87% of youth surveyed reported having an increased interest in innovation and entrepreneurship, due to positive attitudinal impacts they experienced through engagement in our programming. Additionally, 95% of youth reported that our programming positively influenced their post- secondary and career choices in a related STEM field.”
MindFuel’s Tech Futures Challenge (TFC) program inspires and invites youth to form teams and select sustainability challenges in their communities they are passionate about and would like to solve them through STEM and innovation. With support from MindFuel and its Connect2Innovate platform, youth also gain access to mentors in industry and academia, and build mentors / industry / peer networks. Through applied learning, using emerging technologies including coding, machine learning, robotics, synthetic biology and more, youth create prototype solutions, which are evaluated at MindFuel-hosted workshops by industry expert judges.
“Organizations like MindFuel are critically important to rural and Indigenous communities as they support youth with programming that is not readily available locally, and critically, this programming has demonstrated positive impacts in helping youth to build their best futures,” says Sandy Sung, Community Manager for Drax Canada. “Improving STEM education is one of Drax’s investment priorities, and we are excited to work with MindFuel to support the important work of helping youth to become inspired, curious, innovative, and creative regarding the world around them.”
About Drax
Drax Group’s mission is to help meet the world’s increasing demand for secure energy, sustainably, by reaching net zero by the end of 2040 across their value chain, supporting biodiversity across their sites and in their value chain by the end of 2030, and seeking to make a positive contribution to the lives and livelihoods of the colleagues, communities, and workers in their supply chain by 2030. For more information, visit http://www.drax.com/ca
Launched in March 2023, the Drax Foundation funds initiatives that support education and skills development in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), as well as those that improve green spaces, enhance biodiversity and support Indigenous communities within the communities Drax operations. To learn more about the Drax Foundation and community projects that Drax has previously funded, visit Our communities – Drax Canada
About MindFuel
The MindFuel Foundation (formerly Science Alberta Foundation) is a registered charitable organization committed to creating youth innovation talent. Since 1990, we have been developing and distributing captivating, high-quality, 21st century programs that ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) innovation in K-12 and collegiate aged students. The programs are technology based, and technology infused, developed to serve both in-class and extracurricular learning. To date, MindFuel has invested over $130M into Canada’s innovation ecosystem in over 1,600 communities, serving youth populations, including Indigenous students, females in STEM, economically disadvantaged youth, remote/rural students, racialized youth, and newcomers to Canada.
MindFuel also delivers eLearning programming through its wholly owned subsidiary, Wonderville Enterprises Ltd., which reaches hundreds of thousands of teachers, students, and parents each year in every province and territory, supporting over 620,000 learning sessions annually in Canada, and over 6,000,000 globally. Since inception, MindFuel has delivered over 165,000,000 learning sessions in over 190 countries with its online STEM programs.
For more information, please visit mindfuel.ca
Media Inquiries:
Cassy Weber, CEO
The MindFuel Foundation
cweber@mindfuel.ca
403.220.0077
