Waterloo celebrates its top co-op students

Monday, March 25, 2019

2018 Co-op Student of the Year Award Winners

Every year, six exceptional co-op students, one from each faculty, are recognized by the University of Waterloo for their contribution to their employer, their community and the further development of experiential education.

This year's winner from the Faculty of Science is Stephanie Chan (Biochemistry).

Stephanie worked in several clinics during her co-op terms at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, including the palliative care radiation clinic, breast cancer radiation clinic and the bone metastases clinic. She initiated a study on the prevalence and predictors of shortness of breath, allowing physicians to approach symptom management in a more holistic way. In a separate study regarding the treatment of fibroids, she created new efficiencies to decrease the time required to manage the study by 20%.

“Across every discipline and level of experience you can find a student who has created a meaningful impact in their workplace,” said Ross Johnston, executive director of Co-operative Education at Waterloo. “The growing number of employers from all over the world who hire Waterloo students demonstrates the reaches of our reputation for excellence.” 

This year’s winners truly exemplify the magnitude of work Waterloo students can accomplish across the globe. In addition to Stephanie, the University of Waterloo’s 2018 Co-op Students of the Year were:

  • Lauren McLennan – Public Health (Faculty of Applied Health Sciences)
  • Krista Duncan – Speech Communications (Faculty of Arts)
  • Nathan Duarte – Biomedical Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
  • James Schnarr – Environment and Business (Faculty of Environment)
  • Yutong Wu – Computer Science (Faculty of Mathematics)

Yasmeen Razvi (Applied Health Sciences), Carly Stanisic (Arts), Emily Lam (Engineering), Hannah Dubber (Environment), Yan Zhang (Mathematics) and Emily Pass (Science) received honourable mentions for Waterloo’s awards.


This is an excerpt of an article originally posted on the Co-operative Education website.