By Cindy Chant
cindy@peicanada.com

A fourth year UPEI biology student, Naomi Jeffery, has reached a new level of an intensive learning curve recently.

The Cascumpec woman accomplished this by participating in a paid internship program funded by the federal Department of Innovation and Technology. Ms Jeffery is one of many students taking advantage of the PERCE youth employment program available to Island post-secondary students working in their field of study in PEI. 

“This has been a great experience for me and it will help me in the fall when I go back to school,” said Ms Jeffery, admitting the note-taking alone has allowed her to compress several pages of research into valuable information for her supervisor, Crystal Sweeney.

Ms Sweeney is an Acadia University student working towards her Masters degree. 

A UPEI professor, Dr Anthony Tong, rounds out the research team, which is trying to detect pesticides in sweat samples taken from selected volunteers attending Clean Cuts Chemical-Free Hair Salon in St Felix, owned by Laura-Lee Shea. The facility offers a Sauna Ray Infrared Sauna which will be used by the participants of the study.

The PERCE program was initiated in 2004 as a pilot project by La Société de Dévelopment de la Baie Acadienne (SDBA), in partnership with RDEE Prince Edward Island Inc., the provincial francophone economic development council. 

PERCE was designed to assist Island students enrolled in their last or second last year of post secondary studies. Under the program they participate in a 12-week paid internship in their area of studies and interest. 

PERCE was initially developed to assist PEI Acadian and francophone students but over the years, the program expanded to include anglophone students as well. 

“We are extremely pleased to be able to offer this program for an eighth summer in a row and to do our part to encourage youth to return to PEI after their studies, to settle down in our province and to begin their career here,” said PERCE program coordinator, Isabelle Cormier.  

Ms Jeffery applied for the program several months ago and has been working closely with Ms Cormier to find a suitable placement within her field of study in West Prince. 

“It was difficult to find something that was a good fit,” said Ms Jeffery, adding it is nice to be closer to home while being involved in the program.

“Naomi has been my eyes and ears in terms of this research project and already her contribution has fueled our productivity.” said Ms Sweeney, who has be unable to be in PEI as often as she would like throughout the summer. 

Throughout the summer Ms Jeffery has been mapping West Prince, detailing the frequency of potato fields in each lot. After that task is complete, sweat samples will be taken to detect any pesticide residue. 

“I am excited about the sampling which will be started in the fall,” said Ms Jeffery, who explains experiments taken in the lab at school have a predictable set of results and with doing random samples from volunteers “the results are unknown.”

Ms Jeffery can be found during weekdays working as a supervisor at the Alberton C@p site and leafing through stacks of paper work during the late evening hours for the PERCE project. That leaves her with little time for much else, but she isn’t complaining.

The PERCE project still has some internship spaces to fill and students who have a summer job that is linked to their field of study are encouraged to contact Isabelle at 370-7333 and may be added to the list of interns.