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With relevant job experience under their belts,
UVic co-op grads launch into the workforce
by Amy Geddes
Put students Adam Draginda (astronomy),
Melissa McCaghey (recreation/health education) and Briony
Smith (creative writing) in a room
and you’d think they wouldn’t have
much to talk about.
You’d be wrong.
The three students may have studied
very different subjects but there is
something they have in common—all
three can confidently link their current
career success to the UVic cooperative
education program.
Draginda graduates this month
with a BSc and has already secured
his dream job. He’s off to Hawaii
after convocation on a two-year
contract with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope project. Draginda
is sure he landed this position
because of the specialized telescope
software he was able to learn at his
co-op jobs.
“I learned many invaluable computer
skills during my work terms,”
he says. “I was able to get hands-on
experience that you can’t get in the
classroom, at least not in astronomy.”
With so few jobs at observatories for
those with undergraduate degrees,
he says previous experience is a must
and advises other students “you just
can’t go into it green.”
Draginda’s co-op career has included
work term placements with
the Canadian Centre for Climate
Modeling and Analysis (CCCma),
the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics,
and the Gemini Observatory
in Chile. He completed four work
terms at the CCCma and was recently
offered a job at the Gemini
Observatory.
With so many career options ahead of him Draginda feels assured
he’s on the right track. “I’m 100 per
cent confident that I’ll be happy with
my new job, because I was able to try
out different positions through coop.
I know this job is a good fit.”
As one of last year’s UVic nominees
for the Canadian Association
for Co-operative Education’s Co-op
Student of the Year award, Melissa
McCaghey has also taken full advantage
of co-op opportunities.
She’s worked as a summer events
marketing assistant at the North
Vancouver Recreation Commission,
a fitness instructor for Ideal Fitness
for Women in Victoria, a counsellor
for the YM-YWCA Sun Seekers Day
Camp, and most recently as a recreation
clerk at CFB Esquimalt. In
fact, McCaghey made such a strong
impression that she continues to
work part-time for two of her former
co-op employers.
“Over the course of my degree,
there were only about two months
that I wasn’t working while I was
going to school,” she says. “Ideal
Fitness asked me to return to work
for them part time as a fitness leader
and gym attendant while I finished
my degree, and I’ll keep working
there after graduation.”
McCaghey also helps conduct
recreational activities for CFB Esquimalt.
Working part-time at a job
in her field affords her the luxury
of pursuing her post-graduation
job hunt carefully. She’s planning
her next career move and aims to
work with older adults, promoting
healthy aging.
Co-op has opened many doors
for Smith. As a self-professed co-op
nerd, she’s has demonstrated how to
take a liberal arts degree and make
it live on the glossy pages of well-known
publications.
Smith has pursued co-op positions
that have required her to
write in many different styles. She’s
worked as a communications assistant/junior writer for Public Works
and Government Services Canada
in Ottawa, as publications assistant
for the Canadian Forest Service,
and as a communications assistant
at UVic.
This diverse sampling of writing
positions prepared her for dream
job; her last and current co-op position
is as an editorial intern for Quill
and Quire magazine in Toronto.
Smith, whose co-op employers
have all been women, says that
working alongside women who
excel in communications in diverse
fields has bolstered her enthusiasm
for her future career: “Having such
smart ladies as mentors has been
really inspiring.”
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