While Knowledge Integration is not a formal co-op program, the optional KI Works program provides similar credentials and professional development for students who have their own relevant summer jobs.
Here are examples of the wide range of ways KI students spend their summer and apply their KI learning:
- Amplify internship with RBC: an intensive summer student program for talented developers, data scientists, UX/UI designers, and business analysts that fosters innovation and collaboration to tackle real world business challenges
- attending the Redfish School of Change intensive field school in coastal communities in British Columbia and Washington State to gain skills in raising environmental awareness: read about Katie's experience at Redfish
- complete hands-on field work as part of their summer courses: read about Léa's ocean field work in Eastern Canada through ERS 374
- civic innovation assistant at the Calgary Civic Innovation Lab including co-creating tools and materials for prototyping and rapid experiment of ideas, assisting with creation of productive lab working sessions using design thinking methodologies, social media, data analysis
- Archaeological field school in Jordan: read about Lindsay's experience in Jordan
- working in Toronto at a company specializing in digital strategy and doing an intra-preneurship project
- validating noise removal software: read about Sam's sound processing internship in Denmark
- internship at Overlap Associates, a strategy studio in Kitchener, doing research, writing, design, facilitation, project management and more
- Overseas placement with Beyond Borders, an academically-centered international service-learning experience:
- community-based trainer for a Village Savings and Loan Association in Kampala, Uganda
- working Nairobi, Kenya with an educational organization
- working in Kampala, Uganda with Reach Out Mbuya, an HIV/AIDS initiative that takes a holistic approach to helping limit the spread of HIV/AIDS as well as help families and individuals that have already been infected
- working as a Knowledge Mobilization Associate for Octagram, a software consultancy
- communication intern in Washington building relations with the US government and international media, and then returning to Waterloo as a Shad program assistant during July
- research with a biology professor, including field work in the far north
- participating in the University of Waterloo Enterprise Program, developing a resource that teaches start-ups and small businesses how to make the best hires possible
- internet services research consultant for the uWaterloo Housing Office to find issues and inefficiencies with the residence internet system and address them from a residence student’s point of view
- participating in Explore, a six-week French immersion program in Quebec, and using the remaining weeks to complete a wilderness first responder course and backpack along the east coast
- civilian interpreter for the Halifax Citadel Regimental Association in Halifax, Nova Scotia
- research internship with the UROP international program in Aachen, Germany:
- programming web applications at an institute that specializes in virtual reality and educational organization
- the economics of European Union real estate policies
- the cellular mechanisms in malaria reproduction and how they enter into human cells
- communicating scientific knowledge to the general public
- urban metabolism -- the study of how materials and energy flow within a city and between a city and the surrounding natural environment
- research technician with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (before that, she attended the World Environmental Education Congress, as a member of DodoLab, an artists’ collaboration she became involved with through a KI seminar speaker)
- business analyst at Matrix Solutions in Calgary
- project development intern for a grassroots and emerging community organization in Hamilton
- synthesizing interdisciplinary and international experience to support business development at an architectural firm in Calgary
- internship with the Working Centre in Kitchener
- worked in the talent acquisition department at Talisman Energy Inc, in Calgary
- research student at William Osler Health System in Brampton, including creating a clinical process involving an interdisciplinary team of social works, personal support workers, nurse practitioners and a Geriatrician to manage residents with behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in long term care homes
- intervenor with Deafblind Ontario Services, also taking math course and volunteering for a political campaign
- summer field technician at an agriculture research foundation
- working with The Museum in Kitchener
- in Cuba and Mexico studying and working with an NGO in a lab, in the jungle, and on the beaches protecting endangered sea turtles
- conducting research at Dalhousie University and supported marketing/business with BlueLight Analytics
- Social Media Intern with BlackBerry
- research assistant at a hospital
- youth services officer at the Owen Sound Service Canada Centres For Youth, and was involved in other activities including running, taking a French course, and travelling
- working with start-up to develop and roll out the company’s customer support infrastructure
- running a leadership and teamwork program at an overnight summer camp in northern Ontario
- Trades Interpreter at the Heritage Village of the Waterloo Region Museum, dressed in period correct costume for Kitchener in 1914, demonstrating basic blacksmithing and leather work.
- Intern with MaRS Discovery District in Toronto at the Centre for Impact Investing, research in field building and collaborative networks
- after the KI Barcelona field trip, working on an organic farm in Finland as a WWOOFer, then working as SHAD Program Assistant
- working Treehaus Collaborative Workspace in Kitchener
- after Amsterdam museum course field trip, in Copenhagen for a three-week intensive design thinking course
- working at the Toronto Railway Museum
- travelling in Europe (after the KI Museum Field Trip), then working as a computer camp instructor at TELUS World of Science in Edmonton
- Barcelona museum course field trip, then Benin for a 3-week trip with an international development NGO, then a summer camp for work as a waterfront director
- after Barcelona trip, heading to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to work in an orphanage with disabled children, then to Singapore for 3 months to work in a law firm
- volunteered with the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre in Ramallah
- First Year Experience Leader for the Faculty of Environment, including working with the Student Life 101 program events
- Guide at the Peterborough Lift Lock Visitor Centre, Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site of Canada
- participating in the Explore French immersion program in Quebec, then going to France for a four week French immersion program there, then travelling in Italy, then heading to an exchange at a university in Lyon, France for nine months
Back to KI student Experience page