Nation Builders @ Huron
Huron’s Nation Builder Program is a flagship enrichment program for high-potential leaders who are curious about what drives Canada’s prosperity and motivated to graduate as innovative thinkers and doers in any field they choose.
New Course, New approach
In 2025, Huron welcomed the first cohort of Nation Builder students. Dr. Graham taught the first course in the program, delivered in Winter 2026. IS2211G: Contours of Canada invited students to explore the diversity of ideas, ambitions and experiences that shape notions of Canada and Canadian prosperity. In many senses, Canada is complex and contested. This course examined Canada in its many dimensions in the past and today as a means for reimaging the future – and more importantly, our opportunities and responsibilities to play an active role in shaping it.
In visual art, contours are the lines that define an object. They establish the form, structure and dimensionality; they are usually a starting point. Our goal in this course was much the same: to explore some of the important contours of Canada, inviting students to then deepen their own understanding and exposure in the areas of interest to them.
Photo above: Huron Nation Builder students gathering at Museum London for a debrief of Jane’s Walks through downtown London with community leaders
Photo to right: Huron Nation Builder students touring Indwell Embassy Commons, a highly supportive housing development in London
Learning through Exposure
The course was organized around four themes: identity, prosperity, governance, and future(s). Each theme was explored across two classes, first with an in-class conversation with experts from different disciplines to highlight important ideas and tensions related to the theme; and second, through a site visit field trip inviting students to observe the theme in an applied or experienced sense.
The culmination of the course is a series of Student Impact Projects, providing the class with space to further explore the theme(s) of most interest to them; and, more importantly, to imagine the kinds of contributions they want to make towards a better, more equitable, and more prosperous future for Canada.
Photo: Huron Nation Builder students at Wampum Learning Lodge at Western University