Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Co-op mentors and real-life work experience

by Naz Kittani

A concrete furniture warehouse, a cereal company and a world-leading automotive manufacturer: what do these have in common? For fourth-year Chemical Engineering student Eric Park, these very different co-op work term settings provided the foundations, skills and mentorship that he credits with preparing him for a career.

Looking back at his first co-op experience, Park can’t help but smile. “For four months I hauled bags of cement and shoveled glass so that I could get some experience in a manufacturing setting,” he says. In this unexpected environment, Park says his supervisor’s support and mentorship taught him invaluable real-life workplace skills.

“I was learning under mentors who I still keep in contact with today. That experience of receiving such great guidance and support from my employers facilitated a sense of gratitude,” says Park. He leveraged this newfound knowledge of manufacturing to secure his second co-op work term as a process engineering intern at Kellogg’s.

Most recently, he worked as a manufacturing engineer with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC), a company that has shared a deep-rooted partnership with the University of Waterloo for over 25 years.

Maureen Hossack, a human resources specialist with TMMC, says that providing mentorship to co-op students is very important. “We provide internal mentors for each of our co-op students, to work together through the responsibility of supporting multiple Engineering projects,” explains Hossack. “We value Waterloo co-op students for providing the opportunity to develop our internal mentors with leadership and mentoring skills for the future. We benefit from the mentoring system just as much as our co-op students.”

As graduation fast approaches, Park has already taken the first steps in paving a future career path. “I’m in the beginning stages of creating a start-up with a few colleagues,” he explains. “My co-op experience has provided me with so much valuable knowledge that I can now carry forward to create my own business.”

Park's advice to his fellow students: “Help each other out. You will go further together than you will by yourself.”

Tales of a Teacher: Denise Marigold

This is the second of two Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Stories featured in the Daily Bulletin this week.

In a program known for attracting students with a “desire to make a difference in the world,” sustaining and nurturing that desire is a fundamental challenge. Renison’s Social Development Studies (SDS) is such a program; it seeks to empower learners “to pursue lives and careers dedicated to the promotion of individual and community well-being.” For Dr. Denise Marigold, Social Psychologist and Associate Professor of SDS, supporting students in achieving the program’s objectives means equipping them with the tools they need to become thoughtful, responsible, and engaged citizens.

But how does one do that, precisely? Marigold’s approach combines experiential learning with a responsive approach to teaching that is deeply influenced by positive psychology. She wants to see students thinking critically, gathering and analyzing evidence, and applying their knowledge in her classes. She works to get students questioning what they see in the media about personal well-being—how to live the “good life,” for example, or how to have happy, successful relationships—by asking them to bring their knowledge of psychology research to bear on the validity of those claims.

The value Marigold places on experiential learning is also evident in her second-year positive psychology course. One of its four learning outcomes states that students will “have the opportunity to experience and apply positive psychology concepts and principles to personal growth and well-being.” Each week students choose one of several exercises where they are asked to do things like practice self-compassion, engage in mindfulness meditation, reflect on their personal goals, or keep a gratitude journal, to name a few.

Her classes have been among the most engaging, well-organized, and enjoyable of my undergraduate career. She exudes a positive energy, warmth, and a good sense of humour towards all of her students. 

—Kara Klein, former student

Central to the field of positive psychology, this attention to personal growth and well-being also deeply informs Marigold’s approach to teaching and learning. She highlights the importance of attempting to understand and get to know learners as individuals, recognizing that what motivates one student might not resonate with another. In this way, Marigold seeks to be responsive to her students’ needs and goals both in her day-to-day teaching and in her overall course design.

Understanding student needs and goals is not without its challenges. Marigold strives to know who her students are, how much effort they put into their learning, and the challenges they are experiencing, academic or otherwise.  She understands that personal stress and mental health issues can affect a student’s performance in diverse ways, and when students are disengaged it’s not always easy to tell when that’s primarily coming from their personal challenges. That’s something she tries to accommodate in her courses.

This responsive approach to teaching means that Marigold is prepared to make small adjustments to her courses throughout a term, adjustments that accumulate term to term into improved iterations of a course. For Marigold, it is a significant accomplishment when a change to a course makes it more engaging, even for just one student. And she sees these changes ripple outward, improving the learning environment for more and more students. That’s the real strength in Marigold’s teaching—both her willingness to understand her students, and her ability to make use of that knowledge.

The return of Nutrition Month myth vs. fact; other notes

March has arrived and today is the first day of National Nutrition Month. Dietitians of Canada are providing inspiration for making healthy choices in the 100 meals most Canadians will consume this month. The slogan for this year's campaign is Take the fight out of food! Spot the problem. Get the facts. Seek support.

Beginning next week, Health Services Dietician Sandy Ace will be sharing a daily "myth vs. fact," based on controversial and confusing nutrition-related questions that have been in the news or that she is commonly asked about. Check the Daily Bulletin to learn about nutrition myths and find out what scientific evidence really tells us. You are welcome to forward comments to Sandy Ace, MPH, RD, Health Services Dietitian, at sace@uwaterloo.ca.

The Games Institute's Brown Bag Series continues this week with Pierson Browne giving a talk entitled "Tales from the Front Lines: The Co-Evolution of Digital Play and Networked Storytelling," on Thursday, March 2 at 12:00 p.m. in East Campus 1.

Browne will discuss how players act as interfaces between ‘game’ and ‘metagame’, and what this can tell us about the communicative practices around which game communities cohere. Feel free to bring your colleagues (and your lunch!).

In the same vein, the Games Institute and the UW International Game Development Association are inviting members of the University community to the GI-IGDA Showcase on Monday, March 6 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in East Campus 1.

"This public event is open to anyone with interests in gaming culture and community, or who would like to learn more about it," says a note from the Games Institute. "Come learn about what we have been up to, playtest some prototypes, try out new Virtual Reality devices, and have some snacks." Registration is required.

The UW Recreation Committee is selling tickets to a production of "Singin' in the Rain" at the St. Jacob's Country Playhouse on Saturday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m.

"Making a splash from the moment it premiered, this sensational adaptation of the celebrated film showers you with everything you could wish for in a hit musical!" says the promotional material. "1920s Hollywood is the setting for this zany, light-hearted romantic comedy about the early days of sound film. Hilarious situations, snappy dialogue, and a hit-parade score of Hollywood standards including “Good Morning,” “Make ‘em Laugh,” and “Moses Supposes” make Singin’ in the Rain the perfect entertainment for any fan of the golden age of movie musicals."

Ticket information is available from Shirley Chatten at schatten@uwaterloo.ca. Please purchase tickets prior to Monday, March 6.

Oh, the places you'll go! The Library is celebrating Dr. Seuss's 113^th birthday on Thursday, March 2 in the Dana Porter lobby from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Join the Library Ambassadors tomorrow for cake and have your photo taken in their photo book with some fun Seuss-inspired props.

You are invited to browse the Library's display of Dr. Seuss materials throughout the day. They also have some interesting Dr. Seuss items in the Rare Book Room.

Join the St. Paul's GreenTeam and other environmentally focused groups for a night of ingenuity at the ECO STP Fair, which is taking place on March 7 at 6:00 p.m. in St. Paul's University College's Alumni Hall.

Human Resources is reporting that a number of retired staff members have died recently:

• Irene Rickert, who joined the University in August 1966 and retired as a Technician in Biology, died on February 8;
• Lydia Miller, who began her career at Waterloo in September 1966 and retired in June 1992 as a Food Services Assistant in Village 1, died February 17;
• Frank Burgess, who started at Waterloo in August 1969 and retired in May 1986 as a Staff Relations Assistant in Human Resources, died on February 14; and
• Grace Matthison, who began working at the University in September 1969 and retired in October 1988 as a File Clerk in Purchasing, died on February 6.