Bringing the real world into the classroom: WE Accelerate goes in-person
Hands-on projects and mentorship give students a head start on their careers.
By: Matthew King (he / him)
For the first time since its launch in 2021, Waterloo’s WE Accelerate program offered an in-person stream, and the results are already shaping how students approach their future co-op experiences. Partnering with the Faculty of Engineering’s Pearl Sullivan Engineering Ideas Clinic, the Sustainable Urban Design stream gave students the chance to take on a real-world sustainability challenge while building skills that will carry them into their next work terms.
Chris Rennick, an engineering educational developer with the Ideas Clinic, says the approach is all about context.
“Our tagline for a long time was bringing the real world into the classroom. That really gets to the core of what we’re trying to do.”
The Ideas Clinic had been running its Sustainability Fellowship for three years, traditionally involving students on standard 16-week co-op terms.
By opening the door to WE Accelerate students, the program was able to accommodate more students and create a new way for first-work term students in WE Accelerate to get meaningful, hands-on experience.
Chris Rennick, engineering educational developer, Faculty of Engineering’s Pearl Sullivan Engineering Ideas Clinic
By combining the Ideas Clinic’s expertise in hands-on, design-based learning with co-op’s focus on preparing students for the workplace, we’ve created something truly unique. It’s a model that not only benefits students right now but also strengthens their ability to contribute on their very next work term.
Tackling real problems in real communities
This program put students face-to-face with a real client: Halton Region. Over nine weeks, students worked in teams to propose sustainable design solutions for urban spaces on behalf of their client. It was a broad challenge that spanned everything from green infrastructure to transportation systems.
“What distinguishes this from other experiential learning is that this really is work-integrated learning,” Rennick says. “We have a real client that we’re working with, and that connection, especially over a project of this length, is really uncommon.”
To help better understand the problem, students visited major infrastructure projects in Toronto and toured the Halton Regional headquarters and paramedic centre. For many students, these trips provided their first glimpse of large-scale municipal operations.
“Those kinds of field trip experiences are really uncommon in their curriculum,” Rennick says. “I think (students) got a lot of value just out of seeing (the clients) in person and talking to the folks who run those spaces.”
“School projects are one thing, but actually working with the region and proposing something that they can use is cool,” says Chelsea Dickson, an Environment student taking part in the stream. “Seeing facilities in person, like the wastewater treatment plant, made me realize how much you miss when you only read about it in a textbook.”
Building skills that stick
The first two weeks of the program focused on building knowledge ─ specifically about the context of the Halton Region, climate change and design principles─ before students formed teams and launched their projects. With guidance from faculty, upper year undergraduate students and industry mentors, student teams gained technical expertise as well as collaborative and problem-solving skills.
This project, in a lot of ways, is like a capstone experience. We want them to have this immersive experience before their fourth year, when they’re choosing electives, considering grad studies and taking on capstone projects.
Engineering students appreciated the opportunity to experience the entire design process with a client. That design focus resonated with first-year civil engineering student Thailai Zhao.
“I’m a strong believer in the benefits of working in person,” Zhao says. “Hearing planning and environmental perspectives alongside engineering has been really valuable. It feels like real preparation for the multidisciplinary work I’ll have to do in my career.”
A springboard for co-op success
At its core, the in-person WE Accelerate stream is about setting students up for future success. By working on open-ended, multidisciplinary challenges, students gained confidence in navigating complex problems, collaborating across disciplines and communicating with external stakeholders. All skills that they can directly leverage in their upcoming work terms.
“What we’re really trying to accomplish is to have the students create something of value to Halton Region,” Rennick says. “This isn’t just a poster presentation at the end; it’s about ideas that the region can think about and move forward with.”
For first-work term students, just starting their co-op journey, that kind of impact offers more than a résumé line. It shows they can contribute meaningfully from their very first term and gain a head start as they move forward into the workplace.