CARE event recognizes students and employers
Co-operative education students and employers will be in the limelight on Thursday, May 30, for the Co-op Awards of Recognition Event (CARE) and Student Showcase.
The annual event, sponsored by Concordia’s Institute for Co-operative Education, celebrates the success of its students, showcases students’ work terms and provides a venue to publicly thank employer partners. It also allows students and employers to recognize a good thing when they see it … each other.
There are 16 prize and scholarship categories for students and employers; most of them are based on academic achievement. The most rewarding awards to be presented are the Co-op Student’s Choice and Co-op Employer’s Choice awards, which are based solely on the work-term performance and appreciation of the students and supervisors for each other, and not GPA.
A co-op work term is a 12-17 week period of full-time, paid work. The work term must be related to each student’s field of study, and is scheduled on an alternating basis with traditional academic terms.
All students and supervisors who participated in a co-op work term between May 2012 and April 2013 were entitled to nominate their counterpart for awards. While the close to 100 nominees will be recognized, there will be a total of six award recipients (three students and three employers). They will each receive a trophy designed by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts, and the three winning students will receive a generous cash prize.
The overarching theme in the Student’s Choice nominations was the recognition of supervisors as experienced guides. Civil engineering co-op student Margarita Kotruts said, “My supervisor has taught me everything I needed to know and even more. He inspired me to pursue and succeed in my field of study.”
Finance co-op student Steven Greenberg described his employer as “… an extremely inspiring manager. What I learned from him went beyond the requirements of the job. The tasks he assigned really helped me to develop my business, analytical and professional skills.”
Jennifer Beauchamp, brand manager at Beiersdorf Canada Inc. and Concordia co-op alumna, nominated a student for the Employer’s Choice award. She explains, “Co-op students represent a true asset to our organization and these awards provide a great way for students to be recognized. As both a Concordia co-op graduate and an employer, I can attest to the mutual benefit of work terms not just for students looking to gain practical knowledge within an industry, but also, from an organizational standpoint, for the company itself.”
Student Showcase
Another feature of the CARE event is the Student Showcase. This year, 28 students, many of them award winners and nominees themselves, will take their places next to posters they created and engage passersby. Visitors will learn about the students’ work terms, the skills they obtained, the experience they accrued and the real-world projects they completed.
“Concordia University has a history of lending its students a helping hand. Co-op’s CARE event is one more way to offer support, and to thank its generous alumni, corporate, faculty and staff partners and sponsors,” says Gerry Hughes, the director of the institute.
Watch the 2012 Student Showcase video:
Related link:
• Concordia’s Institute for Co-operative Education