Unprecedented turnout at co-op awards
Concordia’s Institute for Co-operative Education threw a gilded evening on May 25 as an unprecedented 180 invitees turned out to watch awards and certificates bestowed on dozens of co-op students and employers.
The evening’s Master of Ceremonies was Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning Ollivier Dyens. Also present was special guest Provost David Graham.
Held in the John Molson School of Business (MB) Building lobby, the 2011 awards event left little room to manoeuvre as 35 students, drawn from all of Concordia’s faculties, stood beside posters showcasing their achievements at employers representing the wealth of Canada’s economy.
“That’s what it was all about,” said Gerry Hughes, the director of the Institute for Co-operative Education, the next day. “The whole program is centred around our outstanding co-op students and I was so proud of the students who stood by those posters. They looked really professional and they represented themselves and co-op in an exceptional fashion.”
Several students were honoured at the event which also provided an opportunity for everyone involved in the program to meet outside of work hours.
Michel Girardin, an engineer at chemical firm PyroGenesis spoke with one of the students he supervised.
“Every time we employ co-operative education students we really get good results,” said Girardin. “We need many of them to fill open spots. They are professional and they are part of the team.”
Alongside Girardin were employers who had General Electric, Pfizer, Air Canada, Pepsi and Lockheed Martin on their nametags.
“We represent 40 programs across all the faculties,” said Louise Lalonde, the co-op program’s officer of communications and marketing, as she counted off all the programs on her fingers, covering everything at Concordia from physics to international business.
Director of the institute since January, Hughes encountered many welcome surprises at his first awards evening.
“I heard last night from one young fella who worked at Pratt & Whitney and he was supervising 115 people. I told him, ‘Let me see if I got this right, you were an intern who was supervising 115 people?’ He said yes. Now that’s impressive!” said Hughes.
Over the next year, Hughes said he plans to explore how to make the co-op program even more more dynamic by expanding into a variety of non-traditional areas.
Related link:
• "Show-offs ... and proud of it" - Concordia Journal, May 30, 2011