Co-operative and Experiential Education Employer Impact Awards

This award honours an employer who goes beyond the usual business practices to create an inclusive, supportive and thriving workplace environment for co-op students. The winner actively develops programs and initiatives to foster a work environment that encourages and enables students (and staff) to be authentic within their teams and organization. This employer demonstrates a commitment to inclusion through thoughtful recruitment, professional development, daily operations and long-term planning for co-op students. The organization meaningfully involves co-op students in its strategies and takes initiative to help co-op students feel accepted, appreciated and connected.

This award recognizes an employer who empowers students to innovate—whether using technology like AI, by pushing boundaries or by bringing a fresh perspective to a business problem. The award winner offers opportunities for students to use their innovative mindsets, combined with their academic learning, to solve real-world problems. These experiences can be big or small and encourage students to think differently and apply their problem-solving mindset in meaningful, real-world contexts.

This award honours an employer who demonstrates active commitment to fostering global perspectives, thereby enriching co-op student experiences and amplifying the organization’s impact. The winner demonstrates a commitment to leveraging students’ international knowledge and experiences. Employers may offer international work terms, facilitate collaboration with global teams and other organizations or otherwise create opportunities for students to engage with diverse cultures and viewpoints.

Note: Organizations do not need locations outside of Canada or global business operations to be eligible for this award. We encourage Canadian-based companies that draw on the diverse backgrounds, experiences and knowledge of co-op students from around the world, or whose co-op students engage with partners across borders during their work term, to apply.

This award recognizes an employer who supports student excellence in research and analysis, empowering them to explore ideas that can lead to real-world impact. The award winner provides students with opportunities to learn how credible research, guided by strong methods and clear thinking, is essential for making informed decisions and driving meaningful change. By understanding how to gather and interpret data, students gain the tools to ask better questions, uncover insights and contribute to solutions that have positive impact.

This award recognizes employers for their commitment to providing student experiences around advancing organizational sustainability goals or the 17 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. The award winner demonstrates a strong passion for offering work opportunities that focus on building a better world for people and the planet. These efforts can be of any scale—from small, everyday practices to large, strategic initiatives—and may include both ongoing operations and special projects that contribute meaningfully to sustainability goals.

This award recognizes employers who have made a significant and positive impact on the University of Waterloo’s co-op student community. It celebrates organizations that provide stimulating work terms in supportive and thriving environments where students can grow both personally and professionally.

Winners demonstrate a strong commitment to experiential learning, skills development and preparing the next generation of talent for the future of work through organizational culture and values.

Two winners will be awarded based on organization size:

• Startup and small or medium organizations (1–499 employees)
• Large organizations (500+ employees)

This award recognizes co-op supervisors who demonstrate exceptional mentorship of co-op students. Research from the Work-Learn Institute (WxL) shows that students value supervisors who are respectful, support learning, offer constructive feedback, care about well-being and provide clear job guidelines. Award winners will demonstrate excellence in the 4Cs of supervision, based on WxL research:

• Create meaningful work
• Communicate regularly and effectively
• Connect students to the organization
• Care about student experience

The winner embodies these qualities, and students share first-hand experiences about the benefits of the exceptional supervision they receive. A panel of co-op students will use criteria based on Work-Learn Institute research to determine the winners.

Supervisor eligibility requirements

To be eligible for 2027 award consideration, nominated supervisors must have supervised at least two unique University of Waterloo co-op students in the last 4 work terms between September 2025 to December 2026.

Nominating a supervisor

Complete and submit your Student Nomination for Exceptional Supervision Award between January 15 and February 28, 2026.

Supervisor supplementary form

By March 1 all eligible nominated supervisors will receive an email requesting a supplementary form from the nominated supervisor. Instructions and the supervisor form link will be included in the email. Supervisor forms will be due by March 31, 2026.