I-STEAM Pathways: Environmental Education Program for Indigenous Students

Enabling First Nations, Métis or Inuit undergraduate students to gain research experience in environmental fields including science, environmental engineering, environmental law and policy.

I-STEAM Pathways: Environmental Research Internships for Indigenous Students

Providing research experience for First Nations, Métis and Inuit undergraduate students in environmentally-related fields including science, environmental engineering, environmental law and policy, and planetary health.
Fostering systemic change through culturally appropriate incorporation of Indigenous knowledge and values in environmental policy and planning.

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Internship applications

All First Nations, Métis and Inuit undergraduate students attending a Canadian post-secondary institution are eligible to apply. Applications for the Summer 2026 internship program will open here in December 2025.

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Giving and Donors

I-STEAM Pathways relies on public and private sponsors to help support and scale the program. Learn more about how you can donate.

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About

2024 Empowering Indigenous Youth Environmental Research For A Sustainable Future

Voices of I-Steam Pathways Indigenous Interns in The Summer of 2024

This summer, 22 highly energised and engaged Indigenous undergraduate interns from a wide range of Indigenous communities including Wolf Lake, Algonquin, Carry the Kettle, Saddle Lake, Sucker Creek, the Metis Nation of Alberta, Saskatchewan Metis Nation, Berens River Manitoba, and Lac La Biche completed the program. They engaged in a wide range of environmental research projects that included soil carbon storage in grasslands, innovative technologies to monitor water quality and to improve the recycling of plastics, the natural resistance mechanisms of lodgepole pines to mountain pine beetles, sustainable local food production in remote communities, permafrost analysis, and much more!

This video contains snippets of their experiences as they and their supervisors carried out exciting and highly-relevant environmental research that addresses critical issues facing communities today.

Testimonials

I have learned that we should be managing our water bodies by investigating the health of organism populations as water scarcity can become a threat in the future if we are not monitoring for changes. By having knowledge of indicators it would help in monitoring of the Athabasca river.

Janelle Flett, 2020 intern

During my time in the I-STEAM program, I worked with Dr. Carol Frost surveying invertebrate diversity within local stormwater management ponds to assess the effectiveness of enhancement measures made by the City of Edmonton. The experience was rewarding because I got to see my educational training be directly applied to a job and I got to see the benefit of its impacts unfold within my own city. I appreciate the opportunities presented by the program to undergraduate students, and I feel the program has also helped me prepare for graduate school.

Kali Stewart, Nisga’a Nation, 2021/2023 intern

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