Wednesday, May 31, 2017

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• Microsoft: Hiring Waterloo Arts co-op students for over 20 years
• When it comes to sex, you're only as old as you feel
• Get ready to take the lane - June is Bike Month
• Wednesday's notes

Microsoft: Hiring Waterloo Arts co-op students for over 20 years

Tina Wilton poses with character cutouts from the Microsoft Studios game Gear of War: Judgment. She's holding a replica of the Retro Lancer rifle, which my gaming buddies tell me is the third best gun in the game.

By Naz Kittani.

In the late 1980s, Microsoft Canada began hiring University of Waterloo co-op students. Not surprisingly, they mostly hired students from STEM programs on campus. But within just a few years of recruiting from Waterloo, the tech giant did something different.

They hired a Waterloo Faculty of Arts student.

Since then, Microsoft Canada has continued to hire Waterloo co-op students from diverse academic backgrounds.

Tina Wilton, a fourth-year Arts and Business student majoring in speech communication did a co-op work term at Microsoft. As a marketing associate on the developer experience team, she says she was encouraged to apply her creativity to her everyday work. “This role allowed for a lot of creative freedom and helped me to develop a more strategic mindset,” says Wilton.

It isn’t just artistic creativity that can benefit traditionally tech industries. Chirag Sheth, a fourth-year Science and Business student, also had the opportunity to bring his unique skillset to the Microsoft office. “I think many people get discouraged that they don’t have a technical background and therefore can’t work at a technical company,” says Chirag. “In my experience, passion and the ability to problem-solve are just as important.”

Even Bill Gates himself has sung the praises of Waterloo talent. In a 2005 visit to campus, Gates said that some years the company has hired more people from Waterloo than any other university in the world.

What was the best part of working at Microsoft? Both students agree that it was their team at Microsoft who made their work terms extraordinary.

“My favourite part was the community of both co-op students and full-time staff. I had the opportunity to work with so many great people, each of them contributing to my personal and professional growth,” says Sheth.

Wilton echoes these sentiments. “My team quickly became like a family to me,” she says. “Some of my favourite moments were spent hanging out with my team and working on projects together.” 

As they both prepare to move forward in their career post-graduation, Wilton and Sheth credit co-op for their confidence in the future. “Co-op has made me realize what I want to do for the rest of my life,” says Wilton. “Each co-op placement has brought me closer to my ideal position.”

When it comes to sex, you're only as old as you feel

The closer you feel to your actual age, the less likely you are to be satisfied with your sex life, a University of Waterloo study has found.

The study looked at the attitudes of sex and aging of a group of 1,170 adults from their mid-40s to their mid-70s over a 10-year period. 

The group, which included people of diverse sexual orientation, reported that the closer people felt to their chronological age, the lower the quality of their sex life.

“What was clear from the data is that feeling younger had a huge impact on how people felt about the quality of their sex life and how interested they were in having sex,” said Steven Mock, an associate professor in Recreation and Leisure Studies at Waterloo. “For people in mid to later life, feeling young at heart actually appears to make a difference in the bedroom.”

The research drew upon data collected in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study in the between 1995 and 2005. The MIDUS study  is a national longitudinal study of health and wellbeing in the United States and measures the physical and mental health of participants over a period of decades.

“It’s important to consider all of the different psychosocial and biological factors that might influence a person’s sexuality,” said Amy Estill, who led the research while completing her Master’s degree at Waterloo. “While feeling younger didn’t have an impact on how much sex people were having, it was quite clear that feeling older does impact the quality of the sex you’re having,” 

The study was recently published in the Journal of Sex Research.

Get ready to take the lane - June is Bike Month

June is Bike Month at UWaterloo and across Waterloo Region. In partnership with TravelWise, the Sustainability Office is hosting challenges and events throughout the month.

Whether you’re an avid biker or a beginner, you can help promote and celebrate active and sustainable transportation modes to campus by riding on two wheels. 

There are a number of Bike Month events scheduled across campus, including:

• Bike Challenge 2017, Thursday, June 1 to Friday, June 30, across campus;
• Group Bike Ride & Picnic in the Park, Tuesday, June 13, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., Bikeshare station at Dana Porter Library main entrance;
• Bike Day, Wednesday, June 21, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Arts Quad

For more information, please visit the Bike Month web page.  

Wednesday's notes

Spaces are going fast in Columbia Lake Village, according to a note from Housing and Residences. Apply today for fall 2017 graduate housing.

Just some of the benefits include:

• 4-month renewable contracts
• Live in a safe, quiet, clean community of grad students
• Close to campus with seasonal shuttle
• All-inclusive living (utilities, high-speed Internet, community events)
• Option to live in a 2-bedroom (CLV-North) or 4-bedroom townhouse (CLV-South)

For full details visit the Housing and Residences website. 

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include Arista Networks, Redfin, Yelp & Yahoo. Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.