I think it was mentioned in various comments that if the students get a taste of what is actually involved, that's when they realize that they can do it too. That's when the support for camps, whereby they come in to universities and get to connect, or get the experience of even having access to professors coming in, or of remote tele-health conferences in the north, in which they actually see what science is involved... It's exciting. The provinces are working to support education, but they need to get the sciences earlier; they need to get a taste for it and get better science and math training and possibilities, if they are to see that they can be in those roles.
In particular, we're really trying to emphasize that of the 75% of aboriginal students who drop out of high school, 80% are males. We are really concerned in nursing, because nursing is a community role in which they can have a good-paying job, about trying to recruit more aboriginal males into nursing. We want to get them to feel that they can have the confidence to see themselves in that function, in addition to other health science careers as well. Those efforts pay off in the long run.
Then there's the ability of organizations to stay in touch with them. You see a kid in grade eight and you send them an e-mail every year. You talk to them and ask whether they are still continuing, how they are doing with their math, and whether they need a tutor—that kind of thing. We're looking at doing more cyber-mentoring with our students across the country, just so that they turn to someone, rather than just quit because they think they can't do it.