One month into her Co-op work term, Kayla Boyd was fielding media questions in Dawson Creek, BC.

As a new member of the Northern Environmental Action Team – NEAT – she had just presented a workshop on “green cleaning” as part of a local Literacy Now program.

“That was quite a learning experience for me,” she says. “I had been warned that sometimes the media would just show up.”

The local news program recorded the workshop, and reporters interviewed her afterward. “It was nerve-racking,” she adds with a laugh. “I had to get used to being in the public eye and being on the news or interviewed on radio.”

Preparing for the unexpected

Boyd quickly learned to be calm and prepared as part of her new job as an eco-advisor for NEAT. “After a little while, I got used to it. I became more confident, and I stopped looking at myself as someone young that maybe people would question,” she says. “I really got used to preparing for the unexpected.”

NEAT is a non-profit organization that helps residents, schools, and businesses in northern British Columbia live in a more green and sustainable way. Staff members provide environmental education and work with organizations to help them reduce waste while conserving resources.

“When people ask me what I do, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly,” she says. “My schedule varies from day to day, week to week, and month to month.”

From Nova Scotia to British Columbia

How did an Environmental Science student from Shelburne, Nova Scotia, find herself more than 5,000 kilometres from home in northern BC?

“My aunt’s a nurse in Dawson Creek, and I was here for the summer to earn money and stay with her,” Boyd says. While applying without success to large companies such as Encana and BC Hydro, she continued looking for her own Co-op placement.

She came across NEAT and decided to apply for an advertised position even though it wasn’t a Co-op. In her interview, she asked if they could make the position part of her schooling if she got the job: “They called me back the next day and said that would be great.”

She started with NEAT in June 2012 and will remain until August 2013.

“Through the Co-op program, if a job fits with your education, you can make that a Co-op yourself as long as your employer okay with that and follows the regulations,” she says. It’s especially worth trying if students come from outside Nova Scotia or just want to try living somewhere else.

New experience, new confidence

The Acadia Co-op program has given Boyd a chance to try out new things and decide what she wants to do. “It’s been great for me personally,” she says. “I would recommend it to any student who is considering Co-op.” Even if they’re not, she suggests they go to the Co-op meetings and see what it’s about.

“It’s really nice having experience,” she adds. “Before I’ve even graduated, I’ve had a year’s experience that I can put on my resumé and say, ‘I have these contacts. I’ve worked and done this.’ And having that experience will make me more confident as a graduating student next year.”

 

Co-op programs add to knowledge, university experience

An article in the Globe and Mail offers some advice to students waiting to receive admissions letters from PSE institutions of their choice: choose a school/program with a co-op program. The author examines the many benefits of a co-op program, ranging from the development of a determined skill set and the accumulation of “meaningful” experience to the ability to determine that a particular job or career path is not, in fact, the path one wants to embark on. Another benefit is the interruption of a possibly mundane classroom experience, especially as students begin to exhibit shorter attention spans on average. The author suggests that the knowledge provided by a co-op program can not only aid in gaining employment upon graduation, but also that it can provide students with more satisfaction with their education. Globe and Mail

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