Recent Grads Making an Impact on Global Research, Cape Breton
Government programs have helped a medical research firm in the heart of Sydney grow since it opened its doors last August.
Cornerstone Research Group has been hiring new staff to keep up with the research and analytical projects they’re doing for some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and medical device companies. It’s complex, innovative work, and it’s largely being done by graduates Cornerstone has hired straight out of university: employees like Cape Breton University science grad Sheryl Fogarty and Mount Saint Vincent University science communication grad Meaghan Bartlett.
“Most of the people we hire are recent graduates,” says Chris Cameron, partner and senior director of Data Analytics.
“They arrive with strong foundational skills and both the ability and desire to learn the specifics of our jobs. They’re eager to continue learning new ways of doing things, and the energy they bring can’t be matched.”
Five out of six people Cornerstone hired over the last few months are recent graduates, and the company is looking to hire more.
“The people we’ve brought on are working out beautifully,” Cameron says.
The grads were hired through provincial graduate employment programs.
“The Graduate to Opportunity program helped make our decision to open an office here possible,” says Cameron. “It has allowed us to train and invest in our new grads, bring them up to speed, and make them permanent, full-time employees who are in turn enriching our quality of work.”
Graduate to Opportunity (GTO) provides salary incentives to small businesses, start-ups, social enterprises and non-profits to hire recent university or college graduates for new, permanent, full-time jobs. Employers receive 25% of the grad’s first-year salary — 35% if the grad is a member of a diversity group — and 12.5% of the grad’s second-year salary.
The Innovate to Opportunity (ITO) program provides funding to small and medium-sized businesses to hire recent masters and PhD graduates for jobs that are focused on innovation.
For Cornerstone, the combination of these programs means they can also hire top talent like David Garcia, their new clinical epidemiologist, to enhance their global impact. David is an orthopedic surgeon who moved from Venezuela to St. John’s for a MSc in epidemiology at Memorial University. He recently moved his family to Sydney to work with Cornerstone Research.
“I am very grateful to have found a challenging opportunity to make my unique background useful,” explains Garcia. “Finding a long-term career in medical research is not always easy, but I found that in Cape Breton, which my wife and I are excited to now call home.”
Cornerstone also recruited two biostatisticians back to Nova Scotia through the ITO program. Anja Haltner recently graduated with her masters in statistics from Queens University, while Paul Spin was working as a senior research data analyst at John Hopkins University after completing his PhD from Dalhousie University. Both moved to Cape Breton for positions at Cornerstone.
Cameron says retaining recent graduates in Nova Scotia is critically important for the province and that the GTO and ITO programs give both grads and their employers an upperhand.
“These programs are helping employers like Cornerstone create jobs, giving graduates an opportunity to show us what they are capable of, and making business expansion possible. We are a testament of that.
“They really give Nova Scotia businesses an edge, especially for us as we work globally.”
