{"id":24096,"date":"2023-07-05T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=24096"},"modified":"2023-07-07T09:16:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T16:16:48","slug":"camosun-co-op-students-honoured-with-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2023\/07\/05\/camosun-co-op-students-honoured-with-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun co-op students honoured with awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Molly Mifsud and Jacqueline Sperber have a few things in common: they are both Camosun alumni, they both self-developed co-op positions based on their interests, and they both walked away from their co-ops with awards from the Association for Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning BC\/Yukon (ACE-WIL). Mifsud received the 2022 ACE-WIL Student of the Year\/Co-op College Award and Sperber received the 2022 ACE-WIL Student of the Year\/WIL College Award. Both Mifsud and Sperber also won 2022 Yvonne Thompson Awards.<\/p>\n

Mifsud began her co-op at healthcare company Tall Tree Integrated Health Centre, where they created a hybrid position for her that involved working administratively, promoting the company internally, and shadowing psychologists when permitted. She enjoyed having a blended position within the company because it allowed her to broaden her knowledge.<\/p>\n

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Camosun alumna Jacqueline Sperber (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI went in like a sponge and I don\u2019t think I could have absorbed more in my time there,\u201d says Mifsud. \u201cThey were very, very growth-oriented. Even the indirect project stuff, like talking with the psychologists, I feel like I learned so much about what I want for myself, and what I don\u2019t want for myself, and it really helps me get on a path for my career. It was really, really, really valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Nexus<\/i> staff writer Sperber took a similar route and found a co-op that directly aligned with her interests. She combined her love for marketing with her love for mountain biking and wound up working for Fox Factory in Vancouver. She ended up staying with the company as a marketing email specialist after her co-op was finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is very important for everyone who wants to step out of their box and reach their higher goal,\u201d says Sperber. \u201cSo, for me personally, yeah, I\u2019m really into marketing, I\u2019m into biking. So, I\u2019m working for a bike company and that absolutely makes a difference, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n

For burnt-out and undercelebrated students, winning an award (or two) can be a helpful reminder that they\u2019re on the right path.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun alumna Molly Mifsud (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t always get celebrated, we work endless hours, we pull all-nighters finishing assignments,\u201d says Mifsud. \u201cAnd it\u2019s great when it works out, but it doesn\u2019t always. And outside of your report at the end of the semester, we don\u2019t really get much validation. So, it felt really, really nice to celebrate it on a larger level. Especially for something like co-op, which I don\u2019t even get credit for. So, it was nice to celebrate outside of my internal self. I [felt] pride, I would say, yeah, just joy. It was nice. It definitely helped bring me ahead and keep me reminded of why I\u2019m doing this in the first place, so that was really nice as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The validation was also felt by Sperber. Her first language is German, so on top of having to do her schooling in her second language, she also had to learn about the Canadian market in her field of choice. She believes that determination was paramount to her success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m good at what I\u2019m doing,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very passionate about my work and about marketing in the first place, and then accelerating in school was also a thing which I really wanted. I wanted to prove to myself that I can accelerate in school in a second language. And I think if you have a dream, and you\u2019re willing to pursue it with all you have, and you focus on what you\u2019re really good at, then you can reach your goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mifsud is currently continuing her studies at the University of Victoria as well as continuing to work for Tall Tree as a behavioural science coach. She believes it\u2019s important for students to put themselves out there and find a co-op or career that aligns with their passions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFind something within the community that resonates with you,\u201d she says, \u201cand, yeah, overshoot; you never know, right? And if you\u2019re willing to work hard a company will likely take you on regardless; you just have to show that you\u2019re capable of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Molly Mifsud and Jacqueline Sperber have a few things in common: they are both Camosun alumni, they both self-developed co-op positions based on their interests, and they both walked away from their co-ops with awards from the Association for Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning BC\/Yukon (ACE-WIL). Mifsud received the 2022 ACE-WIL Student of the Year\/Co-op […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-july-5-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24099,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24096\/revisions\/24099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}