The Saskatoon Industry Education Council (SIEC) is giving girls in high school the chance to connect with women in the community for career mentorship through a dinner event Thursday evening.

SIEC Coordinator of Learning and Engagement Michelle Hardy says that CONNECTED will give girls the chance to talk to successful women as a way to learn about careers and networking.

“The idea is to help introduce these students to successful women in our community, so that they can talk to them about their career paths, learn about careers that they’ve never even heard of before, and just get a jumpstart on what it looks like to networks and to meet other people who are in the community.”

“This an opportunity for students to learn about a career that may be of interest to them and then come to other events and explore that career path further and see if that is a career path they want to take after high school.”

CONNECTED also aims to teach girls that career paths don’t have to be linear and that careers can change over time.

“They can have a path that may not be straight, that they can make different decisions and try different things. And so, meeting these women in the community and hearing their stories, we always see that not everyone’s career path is a straight line, and especially for high school students, it’s very important for them to learn that at a young age.”

Along with the mentorship dinner, CONNECTED has two special recognitions in place to celebrate youth leadership and empowerment. The Mary Davies Empowerment Scholarship is a $500 award that goes to a grade 12 student who shares a story about what empowerment means to them and how after high school they want to pursue a career that will help them empower other women in the community. The second recognition is the CONNECTED Empowerment Award which honours a grade 12 student who uplifts others and creates a positive community in their school.

CONNECTED runs from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon.