Once again, two Camosun students are being recognized for their achievements during their co-op work terms last year. Hospitality management student Erica Parsons and associate degree student Jaimy Simmonds have been honoured with national and provincial co-op awards, following in the footsteps of five years of Camosun co-op award winners.
Every year since 2007, the Canadian Association For Cooperative Education (CAFCE) and the Association for Cooperative Education (ACE), which hand out annual awards to exceptional co-op students across Canada and BC, have recognized Camosun students.
While both students this year achieved excellence with their co-op experience, the work of Simmonds and Parsons couldn’t have been more different.
Simmonds, who will receive the top award and $500 from the provincially focused ACE, spent her co-op semester working in Fort Nelson in forestry service. Simmonds says her work in this industry and involvement in a unique project helped her win the accolades.
“The field I’m working is quite progressive. I’ve been working on a big wind-farm project that’s going up in the North Island,” says Simmonds. “It’s the first wind-farm project that’s gone in on the island.”
She also suggests that being an older student has helped her to gain academic achievement, something that’s important to the ACE judges.
“I am an older student. I started school at 27,” says Simmonds. “I was much more focused than I might have been at 19 or 20.”
In contrast, Parsons’ co-op term was spent in Orlando, Florida, working as a concierge with Disney. Parsons, who will receive an honourable mention certificate from CAFCE, says though the position was far from home, working for Disney was an easy choice to make.
“I’m a bit of a Disney fanatic, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me,” says Parsons. “The chance to see the inner workings of such a massive company was really an experience I didn’t want to pass up.”
Though she isn’t receiving any money from her CAFCE recognition, Parsons counts herself lucky to have had such a fulfilling work term.
“I learned so much,” says Parsons. “I met so many amazing people and it was just amazing to be part of the company and to make magic every day.”
Gillian Tweed, marketing and communications officer for co-op education, is delighted that Camosun co-op students have once again been recognized for their achievements.
“We are very proud,” says Tweed, “The students are very hard workers, they’re strong students academically, and they have done something really great on their work terms.”