Students in Timmins engage with Canadian astronaut to learn more about space

Students in Timmins engage with Canadian astronaut Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques spoke to more than 700 students in Timmins during an online call from Houston.

David Saint-Jacques will find out Sunday if he will be selected to fly around the moon for the ARTEMIS II mission.

The astronaut, who grew up in Quebec, told an audience of more than 700 secondary and intermediate school students in Timmins that he was once a student like them and that he's been dreaming about going to space ever since.

In 2011, when he graduated from the NASA astronaut program, he realized that dream. Before that, he was a medical doctor in Nunavik.

Science Timmins organized the educational opportunity.

“Space is the next frontier and David Saint Jacques is one of the astronauts that Canada plays in space," said Antoine Garwah, president and chief executive officer of Science Timmins.

“So with his experience in STEM, it would be appropriate to have him here to try inspire the students for the next careers in their generation.”

Garwah said once he sent out the emails to schools, inviting them to learn more from Saint-Jacques, it only took 10 minutes to pack the auditorium at Ecole Secondaire Catholique Theriault.