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Working behind the scenes: A co-op experience at CECA
by Yuni Jo.
Ever wonder how your dream companies land on your JobMine page? Or who arranges your interview right on campus so you don’t have to? Nicole Simec, a 3A Arts and Business student majoring in Social Development Studies, had the chance to find out firsthand in her co-op work term at Co-operative Education & Career Action (CECA).
“My current position is working as a Marketing Associate in CECA where I work to promote the co-op program to prospective students and employers,” says Nicole. “I have the opportunity to create front-facing content both in writing and design that help solidify Waterloo’s reputation as a global leader in co-operative education.”
Nicole was intrigued by the chance to work for CECA and learn what goes on beyond the interview room walls while also returning to work on campus. In her first work term, she held a position as an Advancement Assistant for the Arts Advancement office.
“While being a junior student [in Arts Advancement], I was given responsibilities that were valuable and impactful - not only to myself but to external stakeholders as well,” she says. “Moving over to CECA, I was also given tasks that were significant to the success of the department where I was able to develop my skills in writing, project management, and attention to detail.”
By having a firsthand experience of what goes on at CECA, she not only developed a deeper appreciation for the department, but for co-op overall.
“CECA does a lot more than students think. We have a whole centre full of devoted staff just for co-op, which means they are devoted to our success and to providing us with great co-op opportunities,” she says. “Co-op has given me the chance to dabble in numerous fields which will help tremendously in focusing my career path. But with any work term, no matter what field, I was able to learn tremendously by facing challenges and learning from my mistakes. It’s an invaluable opportunity.”
Nicole is confident that she is better prepared for future work terms and her post-grad career by being given the chance to produce meaningful content that will be viewed by both professional employers and prospective students. She even helped conduct interviews for future CECA co-op students!
As for advice for students looking for their first work-term positions, she says, “Be flexible and stay open-minded. Devote time to writing an effective cover letter and show your exceptional qualities and personality in the interview. The Centre for Career Action (CCA) has excellent resources to help you land that dream job, and even if you don’t, I guarantee that you will learn from whatever ends up happening.”
President's Town Hall next Tuesday
The President's Town Hall Meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 3 at 10:30 a.m. in the Humanities Theatre.
At the meeting, entitled “Defining Innovation,” President Feridun Hamdullahpur will reflect on the University’s accomplishments this past year and will talk about the year ahead.
The centrepiece of the event is the question and answer period with the President.
Members of the University community can share their thoughts and ideas about where Waterloo is heading in a number of ways:
- Questions can be sent in via e-mail to townhall@uwaterloo.ca;
- Questions can be submitted via a question submission form on the President’s Town Hall website;
- Questions can be sent in via Twitter both before and during the President's Town Hall Meeting by tweeting to @UWaterlooLIVE or by using the hashtag #uwth; and
- members of the audience can ask questions from the floor during the Town Hall.
The event will conclude with a complimentary light lunch, served in the atrium of the School of Accounting and Finance at 12:00 p.m.
Please register to save your seat at the town hall and the luncheon event.
Student Success Office update on reorganization
A message from the Student Success Office.
In 2014 the Student Success Office conducted an internal review of it services and operations. With feedback and assistance from the University community the department made a significant shift towards a more strategic and scalable model to support student success. This included reorganizing and repositioning staff to focus on activities in four key priority areas:
- Student experience and transition
- Faculty-specific success strategies
- Student engagement and communications
- Research and assessment
With positive feedback from the campus community, the SSO will be moving towards a permanent complement of staffing. Working with the staff in the SSO, many existing positions have been realigned with the new direction in order to make best use of resources. Therefore you’ll see jobs being posted over the next several months, but no net new resources have been required. The Office continues to be supported financially through a partnership between the University and the students with continued support from the Student Services Ancillary Fee.
An updated copy of the org chart can be found on our website and any questions can be directed to Director, Student Success Pam Charbonneau.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our faculty partners, student representatives, and all campus partners in working with us to provide the best possible support for students to be successful at Waterloo.
Chilling out with polar data researchers
This week 110 researchers in the global polar data community are assembling at the University of Waterloo for the Polar Data Forum II: International Collaboration for Advancing Polar Data Access and Preservation (PDF II).
The PDF II hopes to build collaborations and systems for long-term preservation and access to data and information in our polar regions. It also aims to set standards, best practices, and procedures to build and link systems and online data portals.
Building off the success of PDF I, 2013 in Tokyo, PDF II comes at a time when interest in the Arctic is high in Canada. Due to climate change and resource development, Aboriginal people and other northern Canadian residents are experiencing social and environmental changes which are having tremendous impact on their communities and ecosystems. Responding effectively to these challenges requires information and data to support northern strategies for adaptation, sustainable development, and governance.
Last year geographers at Waterloo released the most complete, detailed view of the Antarctic since 1997. The map is a mosaic of more than 3,150 individual, high-resolution readings, taken in the Southern Hemisphere's autumn of 2008, and tiled together into a coast-to-coast view of the entire continent with its coastal waters. And the results sure are pretty.
The University of Waterloo’s Department of Geography and Environmental Management (ranked 48th in the world) is a leading institution on polar and cryospheric research.
Wednesday's notes
University of Waterloo women staff, grads, post-docs and faculty are cordially invited to attend the next Waterloo Women’s Wednesday (W3) event. The next event will be held on Wednesday, October 28 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Grad House when they officially welcome new woman-identified staff, faculty, post-docs and grad students.
The next lecture in the Arriscraft series will be held at the School of Architecture on Thursday, October 29, at 6:00 p.m. in MLH-1001. The lecture is entitled "de un re - Recent Works 2010-2015: Buerger Katsota Architects."
Stephan Buerger and Demetra Katsota established buerger katsota architects in 2005 with offices in Athens and Vienna. Having successfully been engaged with a variety of architectural and urban design projects as well as academic and editorial research on architecture, in a decade, buerger katsota architects have gained reputation as a leading young European architectural practice. Their work has been widely published in reviews and publications, exhibited internationally and received several awards and honours.
SAP, located in the Research + Technology Park, will be hosting its annual Smile Makers' Bazaar on Thursday, November 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the company's cafeteria. A portion of the proceeds will support the Ray of Hope Morning Glory Café program. In addition to a bake sale and raffle prizes, there will be a variety of vendors including Discovery Toys, Stella & Dot jewelry, Arbonne, Norwex, Epicure, and Tupperware. All are welcome to attend. If you know of someone who would like to be a vendor at the bazaar, please have them notify event organizer Dove Champagne by e-mailing dove.champagne@sap.com.
Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include: Oracle, Rakuten, PwC - China Sourcing Initiative (CSI), General Motors and Scotiabank.