Ted Rogers Co-op Symposium

This weekend, I had the pleasure to attend the Ted Rogers Co-op Symposium. It was a full day event hosted by the Business Career Hub which was a warm introduction into the co-op program. It was a highly educational day where my colleagues and I learnt about the program and ourselves.

Prior to the symposium, I was skeptical about how we were going to spend the full day at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) learning about co-op. I can happily say that it was a day well spent and I can easily see the value in the full day event which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The morning began with a great introduction by Donna Muirhead, Manager of Ted Rogers Co-op who went over the rules and regulations of the program while effectively engaging the audience to participate by stating the things we need to do to remain in the program.

After discussing all the rules for the program and meeting fellow co-op students, we broke off into smaller sections. My first session was a workshop hosted by Medhat Sedarose which consisted of learning the value of other people's perspectives and views different from our own. Prior to the Co-op Symposium, each student completed a Lumina Learning questionnaire which asked us questions about ourselves, similar to a Myers Briggs test. We received the results back during this workshop and I was shocked to see just how precise the feedback was.

One thing I really enjoyed about Lumina learning was how it highlighted not only your strengths and weaknesses, but it also gave you suggested methods of development. I particularly found this section valuable since the advice was tailored to you. It was meaningful to receive constructive advice which truly was specifically suited for me.The accuracy of the results also gave me a good idea of my weaknesses so I can improve on them. In addition, the report was incredibly detailed with specific percentages of how you compare to the rest of the population.

Some of the top words which came up in my profile were “reliable,” “logical” and “structured” which I believe are a great representation of me. Lumina also provided us with a mandela to visualize our results.

After sharing the results with my group and participating in the group activities, Medhat did an amazing job at not just telling us, but also showing my group the importance of working with people with different perspectives to create a well-rounded and overall stronger team. This is a new perspective which I’ll be sure to bring into my future co-op terms.

After the first session and a great lunch break provided by Ted’s Kitchen, the day continued with fun and interactive icebreakers hosted by Career Consultants Shabnam Ahmad and Christine MacKay . Afterwards, my colleagues and I were introduced to some of the members from the Ryerson University Co-op Students Association (RUCSA) team. They hosted a panel consisting of upper year co-op students who shared stories and advice from their co-op journey and were able to answer a few of the questions I had regarding the program. They also had an emphasis on how to differentiate yourself which was great motivation to continue working hard and thinking of new ways to keep myself competitive.

Finally, the day ended off with an inspiring speech from Graham Sogawa, the Director of the Business Career Hub. In his closing remarks, he delivered a motivational perspective on the importance of sales which really caught my attention. As someone who was a semifinalist for the Great Canadian Sales Competition last year and is now one of the Campus Ambassadors, it was reassuring and important to hear the impact of being a good sales person which not only applies to pitching a product or idea, but also pitching yourself and finding ways to build relationships.

I feel privileged to be a part of a co-op program which does so much to help its students succeed and offer such strong support. I look forward to beginning my co-op journey and continuing to learn from all the great resources TRSM has to offer.