Tianna Koreman

Tianna has volunteered across the country with Let’s Talk Science – in British Columbia, Ontario, and even the Yukon!

Time volunteering with Let’s Talk Science: Since January 2014

Area of study: First year medical student

Inspirational Moment: A couple of summers ago I was visiting a school on a First Nations reserve in a very remote area of the Yukon, and one of the girls, a high school student, talked about how she wanted to go to university to study science following graduation. My partner and I were so happy to hear that she had an interest in science, and hoped that she would be able to follow her passion and attend university. We anticipated that there may be socioeconomic, cultural and travel barriers to her attending university, and she was old enough to also appreciate some of these challenges, so her motivation to pursue a post-secondary career was inspiring.

Favourite Let’s Talk Science volunteering activity: DNA extraction

Why do you volunteer with Let’s Talk Science? Teaching science to young kids is a fun way to break up my week by doing something that is not directly related to medicine. However, I still have fun when I get to teach a topic that I am more familiar with, such as the human body, and relate it to what I’m studying in school. I also strongly support the notion of encouraging youth to continue to take science and math electives throughout high school, and hope that my visits may contribute to some students choosing to do this. Finally, I love having the opportunity to go on rural and remote outreach trips and explore different areas of Canada, while doing outreach with groups of students that may not often have experiences like this.

Fun fact: I love trying new things, so played ice hockey for the first time ever this year, in our med school’s interclass hockey league.