Friday, March 18, 2016

Waterloo honours Co-op Students of the Year

The 2015 Co-op Students of the Year Awards were held on Tuesday, March 15 in the Tatham Centre. Six students, one from each Faculty, were recognized for their outstanding achievements in co-operative education.

One student was also honoured with the rare “co-op triple crown”, by winning the Faculty, provincial, and national Co-op Student of the Year awards.

Rachel McDonald, from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, was recognized by the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE) as the winner of the national Co-op Student of the Year Award and by Education at Work Ontario (EWO) as the winner of the provincial Co-op Student of the Year Award. She received these top awards for her work with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where she coordinated a radiotherapy program for people in the advanced stages of cancer.

Before the event, the winners sat down for lunch with University President and Vice-Chancellor, Feridun Hamdullahpur and Acting Executive Director of Co-operative Education & Career Action, Rocco Fondacaro.  

At the awards ceremony, family, friends, and employers of the winners and members of the University community, including deans, executives and students, came together to celebrate the students and their achievements in co-op.

The 2015 Co-op Students of the Year are:

Vinita Dhir, Faculty of Science

​Vinita is a third-year Science and Business Student with a major in Biology. She worked at St. Michael’s Hospital as an oncology research assistant and bone metastases project manager. She conducted investigative studies, where she took a lead role submitting proposals, presenting research topics, and ensuring patient satisfaction. Vinita also conducted self-directed research studies, which she continues to oversee while working in another position.

She shares her experiences and knowledge about co-op with incoming high school students by giving presentations and speaking to them one-on-one. 

Jordan Grant, Faculty of Engineering

A second-year Management Engineering student, Jordan worked with Deloitte as an Innovation Analyst. During his work term, Jordan developed the Deloitte Tech Exchange (DTEX), an event that gives Waterloo students the opportunity to work with high-end technology, which would otherwise be unattainable due to cost. The event is designed to give students the experience and resources necessary to take them through the design process, where they are challenged to find a solution to an industry problem.

Jordan continues to volunteer his time overseeing the expansion of DTEX while working in another position. The event is currently scheduled for Fall 2016, offering a wider variety of events and workshops to a larger group of students.

Andrew MacDonald, Faculty of Environment

Andrew is a fourth-year Geography and Environmental Management student. Andrew was awarded an Honourable Mention for the CAFCE Co-op Student of the Year Award for his work as a Natural Heritage Educator with Pinery Provincial Park. With a passion for the environment and education, Andrew delivered educational programs to the public, led surveys on species at risk, and developed an interactive app for the park. The Explore Pinery app engages visitors by promoting park amenities and giving them the chance to track and observe the different wildlife and natural beauty of the park. By providing tips on how to avoid poison ivy and other dangers around the park, and having easy access to the emergency contact information in the app, it helps improve customer safety. The app can be found in the Google Play and iTunes stores.

In his spare time, Andrew volunteers as a camp counselor with Scouts Canada for a week every summer, where underprivileged children get to attend camp. He helps with the planning of activities, meals, and running of the camp.

Rachel McDonald, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences

Rachel is a fourth-year Health Studies student working as a Clinical Research Assistant with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She was honoured by the University, as well as both nationally and provincially by CAFCE and EWO, for her work coordinating a radiotherapy program for people in the advanced stages of cancer. Her work on the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for non-spine bone metastases has been published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics and a manuscript in the peer review journal Technology in Cancer Research and Treatment.

In addition to her work, Rachel volunteers with Adapted Aquatics, where she teaches swimming lessons to people with disabilities.

Joey Pereira, Faculty of Mathematics

A third-year Computer Science major, Joey worked as a software engineer and lead developer at PiinPoint, a Waterloo software startup that helps retailers determine the best location to open shop. He took on a lead role in the development, improvement, and expansion of PiinPoint’s platform, creating a drivetime polygon generator. He was also given the authority to deploy changes to the production environment and manage a team of engineers and co-op students.

Joey also worked with Hack the North (the largest hackathon of its kind in Canada) leading the platform team and was in charge of attendee experience, registration, and applications.

Emily West, Faculty of Arts

Working as the assistant project manager at the Games Institute, Emily a fourth-year Psychology student, acted as the first point of contact for not only the day-to-day activities, but also for the organization and execution of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Grant Mid-Term Meeting, hosted by the Games Institute. She organized guest speakers, catering and equipment rentals, created the final conference schedule, and designed the event brochures. She also streamlined the communication process, creating an improved means of transmitting important information to the Games Institute’s members and researchers.

Emily is also the model director with Fashion for Change. Fashion for Change is a student-run club that brings together fashion, music, dance, and drama, hosting events throughout Fall and Winter terms. The culmination of both terms is a fashion show for which all the proceeds go to Free the Children.

In addition to the students listed above, Abhirup Chatterjee (Applied Heath Sciences), Kai Slaughter (Engineering), and Emma Hawley-Yan (Environment) received honourable mentions for Waterloo’s 2015 Co-op Students of the Year Awards. 

Congratulations to all of our student winners! 

March Break Open House set for tomorrow

A message from Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment

The University of Waterloo will welcome more than 8,000 visitors at the annual March Break Open House tomorrow, Saturday, March 19, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The event is geared towards high school students, and their families, who have applied to Waterloo. It is a full-day program that is designed to answer the more detailed questions that future students may have now that they have applied or been admitted to Waterloo.

Attendees are invited to create a personalized schedule using an online tool for scheduling faculty and program-specific sessions as well as general information sessions about co-op, residence life, and financing. The Student Life Centre (SLC) will have booths featuring campus services, a clubs demo, and tours departing throughout the day. There will also be Residence tours including the University Colleges, throughout the day.

Faculty highlights for Saturday’s event include:

• Faculty of Arts: Sample Lectures including; "Gaming the system: How games can help us understand the real world”, "The terrorist next door: The social ecology of homegrown radicalization”, and “Devil Baby at the Hull House”
• Faculty of Applied Health Science: Program-specific student panels with current students
• Faculty of Engineering: See first-year design projects up close and ask questions from the design teams
• Faculty of Environment: Take home Faculty of Environment swag, including soap made from natural ingredients in our very own ecology lab
• Faculty of Mathematics: Attend a professor panel to learn more about courses, academic options, research topics, and career outcomes.
• Faculty of Science: Find out what “Dark Chocolate Matter” and “Frozen Laser Bean” really means in the new Science Teaching Complex.

For those who are unable to attend, the general information sessions will be livestreamed and include a live chat. To follow along on social media use hashtag #mboh16.

Friday's notes

Pancakes aplenty: Members of the Graduate Studies Office (GSO) celebrated St. Patrick's Day by hosting a pancake event in Needles Hall. All proceeds went to support the United Way. Pictured left to right are Angela Rooke, Carrie Nickerson, Patty Robinson-Angel, Julie MacMillan, and Tasha Glover.

Here's today's Nutrition Month "Myth vs. Fact" supplied by Health Services Nutritionist Sandra Ace:

Myth: Almond “milk” has the same nutritional benefits as regular milk.

Fact: Many recent studies support the role nuts like almonds play in promoting overall health, including healthy weight management, heart health, and diabetes management. The same benefits don’t extend to nut milks like almond beverage, however. Almond “milk” is made by roasting and grinding whole almonds, blending them with water, straining, then adding other ingredients including sugar, thickeners, emulsifiers and salt. Almond milk is increasing in popularity, but it is low in protein compared to cow’s milk or soy beverage with only 1 gram per 1 cup/250mL serving (compared to 8 grams for milk, 6 grams for soy beverage). In fact, an entire litre of almond milk contains the protein equivalent of less than ¼ cup of almonds.

If you regularly use almond milk, look for a brand that is fortified with nutrients found in cow’s milk, including vitamins A, D, B12 and B2 (riboflavin) and calcium. If you use almond milk on your breakfast cereal in the morning, you can boost your protein intake by eating a hard-boiled egg or a ¼ cup serving of unsalted nuts. If you choose almond milk because you are lactose intolerant, consider trying a lactose free cow’s milk available in the dairy section of the supermarket.