The University of Winnipeg is set to host hundreds of curious high school students from Grades 9 to 12 as part of the UWinnipeg’s High School Enrichment Program. The program, which is currently in its 41st year, will run from April 28 to May 2.
The UWinnipeg High School Enrichment program is offered in cooperation with Manitoba school divisions and was created to provide promising high school students with a taste of the intellectual university experience. Students are immersed in a one-week classroom experience with a particular university professor on a topic of the student’s choice.
Full circle from student to instructor
Dr. Iian Smythe, a professor in the UWinnipeg Mathematics and Statistics department, recalls taking a physics and music course while he attended the high school enrichment program.
“I just remember it being exciting,” said Dr. Smythe, who remembers more about the feelings than the content of the week. “It was my first time really spending time in a university setting or university classroom. Neither of my parents went to university. So that was a very useful experience for me as a teenager who wanted to go to university.”
Twenty years later, Dr. Smythe will be teaching his own course for the program titled To infinity… and beyond. “Some of the stuff we are going to cover is pretty sophisticated. It will require the students to think logically and reason in a way that they probably haven’t been pushed to before. I want to challenge and expand their perspective on math.”
With over 10 courses being offered, other topics for the program include fashion marketing, alien lifeforms, and video games.
University-level instruction
“It’s a unique program that fuels students’ academic interests and often leads to post-secondary studies,” said Rebecca Stephenson, Program Officer with the Faculty of Science & Gupta Faculty of Kinesiology and Applied Health.
“The feedback we’ve received from students in the past highlights the importance of the program and what they’ve gained by participating in one week of study,” said Rebecca. Some of the feedback includes: “I learned things I would’ve never thought of pursuing. It’s a valuable and special experience I wish I could relive again!” And: “I’ve finally found a place I’ve belonged and felt truly accepted. I’m going back home a different person than when I came here.”
Since 1984, it is estimated 15,000 high school students have participated in the program. This year marks the first year of the program without former academic director and founding member of the High School Enrichment Program planning committee, Dr. Hinton Bradbury. Dr. Bradbury was a long-time UWinnipeg professor of psychology and often offered course favourites, Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Films and Freudian Personality Theory. Dr. Bradbury passed away in June 2024.
For more information about the High School Enrichment Program, including course descriptions and application deadlines, please visit the High School Enrichment Program page. The deadline for students to apply with their high school is Friday, March 7, 2025.