UNews - Co-operative Education

Career Bridge a hub for ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students to advance career preparedness

trevor.kenney — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:52:02 +0000

Transitioning from an academic experience to a professional career is streamlined for ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students who take advantage of work-integrated learning (WIL), experiential learning and career services opportunities. The U of L’s new hub for these activities, Career Bridge: Centre for Work-Integrated Learning and Career Development, is now open.

Career Bridge consists of a powerhouse lineup featuring Co-op, Applied Studies, Career Services and an Experiential Transcript Advisor.

Career Bridge consists of a powerhouse lineup featuring Co-op, Applied Studies, Career Services and an Experiential Transcript Advisor. Its mandate is to offer exceptional work-integrated learning, experiential learning and career services so that every participating student can benefit from an outstanding academic and professional development experience.

“Career Bridge is available to all U of L students and opens the door to more collaboration with employers who are looking for top-quality graduates with 21st century skills who will help build the economy in Alberta and beyond,” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s provost and vice-president (academic).

“We recognize that experience matters. Work-integrated learning and career development are critical to supporting and enhancing educational and professional outcomes,” says Stacey Gaudette-Sharp, program coordinator and instructor. “By housing WIL programs and service-based career development under one roof, we are better able to position students to integrate theory with practice and to work collaboratively with our industry partners, local business and not-for-profit organizations to achieve their goals while supporting a thriving community.”

The centre will focus on increasing opportunities for all students, including developing personal and professional competencies as well as providing tools and resources to support and track curricular and co-curricular accomplishments via an experiential transcript. The My Experience Transcript (MET) complements the academic transcript and is being designed to reflect a student’s curricular and co-curricular experiential learning opportunities, giving students a well-rounded summary of their university career as they transition to the professional world.

“We are so excited by the potential for our students via Career Bridge,” says Dr. Mark Slomp, executive director of Student Services. “The U of L is a leader in creating and capturing the value of WIL opportunities and advancing student career development and lifelong learning.”

The restructuring and grouping of activities and resources under Career Bridge will strengthen their profile and reputation on campus and in the community for delivering high-quality programs and services.

“Our mission is to build bridges between purpose, practice and possibility,” says Gaudette-Sharp. “With this philosophy in mind, I believe our community — our students, employers and civic partners, faculty and staff — can achieve anything we put our minds and hands to.”

Students can visit myexperience.uleth.ca or uleth.ca/career-bridge for more information on career-building options. From the myexperience.uleth.ca portal students can apply to the Co-op program, register for workshops and events like Career Fair (Sept. 28), and book appointments with career specialists and co-op coordinators. Employers can also access the Career Bridge web page and create an account to post positions or inquire about hosting information sessions or professional development events.

Diverse skill set aids geography graduate Banting in professional career

trevor.kenney — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 18:13:39 +0000

Geography deals with some of the most exciting issues on Earth. It studies the interaction between human beings and the global environment and the resulting problems and opportunities.

We, as human beings, are an intrinsic part of the global ecosystem. We are a powerful part of nature and create imbalances that can have global influence. Geography is also concerned with spatial analysis: the distribution characteristics or network structures of a wide variety of physical and human features on the Earth's surface. It is from these concerns that Geographical Information Science (GIS) has emerged.

For geography alumnus James Banting (BSc ’09, MSc ’16), the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge was the environment he needed to discover his passion. Banting bounced around between a few programs in his first year before he decided what kind of degree he truly wanted to pursue. He started with general science, looked at political science and finally settled on geography. Perhaps his childhood fascination with National Geographic maps played a role in the decision? Nevertheless, it was the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s liberal education approach that allowed him to explore these opportunities.

“I was also able to meet some very smart and interesting people through my studies, student groups and extracurricular activities which has helped immensely in my professional career,” says Banting.

During his undergrad studies, Banting worked with Dr. Sarah Boon on some of her environmental research work in the Oldman River watershed. This was his first experience with geospatial work outside of lab or class settings and it helped shape his understanding of the requirements for geospatial work outside of school. Some of his favourite class experiences were trips into the field, as well as Dr. Hester Jiskoot’s glaciology lab where he was able to build a replica glacier to simulate how ice flowed around obstacles.

“My professors encouraged me to always think of the bigger implementations of my work. Why were we doing some task? Could there be a better way? The environment in which they taught allowed me the freedom to question methods I did not understand and seek clarification in areas I poorly understood. Through their guidance, I was able to realize the meaning behind the saying, ‘The more you know, the more you know you don't know’.”

Banting gained further work experience when he joined the Co-operative Education program and completed a work term with the Alberta Geological Survey. His experience helped him understand the governmental approach to GIS work, and was his first introduction to computer programming.

“The biggest advice I can give to future students is to take a basic course in computer programming. Knowing how to code is immensely useful in any discipline, even more so in geography and GIS,” advises Banting.

Banting now works as a geospatial developer at Sparkgeo, which provides geospatial expertise to tech companies. There he studies cloud native approaches to geospatial problems. He is very enthusiastic about the business applications for machine learning on remotely-sensed data.

“The projects I work on cover a wide range of geospatial topics including remote sensing, geographical information science, cartography and data collection,” he explains.

For more information about the geography program offered at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, click here. If you’re ready to jump into the excitement and discover your passion for geography, apply today!

Local design studio creating internship opportunities for U of L co-op students

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 22:09:58 +0000

What began with a visiting lecture has turned into a mutually beneficial co-op student internship program that promises to push the boundaries of new media for years to come.

Both Trevor Embury, left, and Anthony Campea want to give back to students through their company aftermodern.lab inc.

aftermodern.lab inc., an award-winning design studio based in Toronto and Lethbridge, has struck a relationship with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and specifically the Co-operative Education and Internships Office. The studio is granting Faculty of Fine Arts students in all majors the opportunity to complete co-op work terms as part of their degree.

“The intention of aftermodern.lab doing something here was really to work with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and the new media and fine arts programs, to create a placement opportunity for students,” explains Trevor Embury, who along with Anthony Campea, are the principals and design directors of aftermodern.lab. “In Toronto, we have a really excellent reputation, so we thought that by being here in Lethbridge, we’d offer something a bit more unique in terms of creating a bridge between academic studies and an actual practicing studio.”

In 2014, shortly after establishing a Lethbridge studio, aftermodern.lab funded a scholarship at the U of L, and then began a program where they would offer co-op work opportunities to fine arts students.

A look at some of their award-winning design ideas.

“Both Anthony and I have always wanted to create a space to work with junior designers, to give them more, so they can really experience the industry,” says Embury. “There are so many gaps in a student’s experience. If you only have a portfolio focused on your student work, it’s extremely difficult to find employment in this industry.”

While new media students have always had the chance to complete an internship at the end of their studies, they, and all other fine arts students, are now able to complete four- to 12-month paid internships at any time throughout their studies.

Sam Loewen has already completed a term with aftermodern.lab and is now working part-time at the studio.

“I’ve gained a real breadth of experience because I wasn’t only involved in the fine arts, but also design, business and advertising. Without this experience, I’d be missing that application outside the classroom, and it’s a very different way of learning, a different way of working,” says Loewen, who had the opportunity to work on high profile projects such as an exhibition for the Toronto International Film Festival

aftermodern.lab will take on more students this fall (one per semester, applications through co-op placement programs), and with such positive results already realized, Embury is excited about the relationship that’s been established.

“Both Anthony and I want to teach something, we don’t want to hide it, it’s not a trade secret that’s locked up,” he says. “When we give back to the world, we in turn get it back to our practice, partly through bringing in people like Sam, who gives us so much.”

Sopko discovers passion for environment in classroom

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:47:07 +0000

When Courtnay Sopko was first learning about the origins of Greenpeace and the environmental movement, it ignited in her a passion for environmentalism. Less than a year later she was working for Greenpeace as part of a co-operative study opportunity through the Applied Studies and Co-operative Education office.

"I learned a lot about the origins of the environmental movement in my Introduction to Environmental History class, and how Greenpeace started it all," says Sopko, who then put her passion into practice. "Greenpeace gained widespread attention for environmental issues during the late 1960's and early 1970's. They were one of the first groups to take a stand for the environment and make a difference. It was because of this history class that I knew I had to get that internship."

Courtnay Sopko enjoyed a four-month internship opportunity with Greenpeace.

It wasn't always that clear for Sopko, who came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ from her Fernie, B.C. home looking to study in a humanities discipline but not really sure where she'd direct her focus.

"History stuck out to me as a major that was challenging and also a subject I could grasp," she says. "But beyond that I had no idea what I was going to do."

Dr. Christopher Burton's environmental history offering would prove to be just the spark Sopko was seeking. By the time she returned to Fernie the following summer, she had signed up for volunteer positions with local non-profit agencies Friends of the Flathead and Wildsight. It was through that work that she found the four-month Greenpeace internship opportunity.

Sopko applied and, after an intensive series of surveys and interviews, was one of 20 interns selected from a pool of more than 100 applicants.

"The internship gave me the experience necessary to run, organize and support environmental campaigns," says Sopko. "It felt great to work with Greenpeace. I was able to take what I'd learned in my history, geography, and environmental science classes and put it into action through a work experience."

From Sept. to Dec. 2009 Sopko worked for Greenpeace in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Japan. Her background as a history student served her well as she came to the job with a solid skill set of communications and writing experience. Being on the frontlines of the Greenpeace movement, especially when working as part of the International Day for Climate Change team, her knowledge was put to the test.

"We trained for months and had lots of information briefings so that we could answer all the questions that people might have about any campaign we were running," says Sopko. "Now I feel like I can talk to anyone. I am comfortable facing opposition views, and I know I can still get my message through."

She values the liberal arts background she gained by studying at the U of L.

"I got some pretty strange looks when I said I was a history major, because typically I was working with people who had environmental science backgrounds," she says. "I now know that any degree with a focus on communication and writing is very valuable in the work world. After all, a critical part of what we were doing with Greenpeace required effective communication skills.
"The U of L helped me develop a well rounded point-of-view for the different arguments within environmentalism. I can look at things from a historical perspective as well as a more traditional scientific background. It's a product of taking different classes from different fields and looking for ways to gain practical experience."

She's quick to add that she took advantage of the opportunities available to her and recommends students become engaged and take control of their educational experience.

"Take a diverse selection of courses," advises Sopko. "Volunteer and experience different things. Make sure that co-operative education and applied studies are a part of your ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ experience too, because you never know what you are passionate about until you actually do it."

GET THE FACTS

• Sopko, in her fourth year of studies, is set to graduate in June.

• Friends of the Flathead, with whom Sopko volunteered, works to protect and save the Flathead River Valley in British Columbia. Wildsight works to protect the Columbia and Rocky Mountain eco-regions in southern British Columbia.

• Sopko is looking to continue working with Greenpeace upon graduation. She is also seeking out new internship and fellowship opportunities.

For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - Co-operative Education

Career Bridge a hub for ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students to advance career preparedness

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