Cindy's February Reflection
What were your main responsibilities and tasks during your co-op placement? How did they relate to your academic studies?
My main responsibilities were virtual program management, teaching kids, and tiktok creation. I would manage all the YRES Virtual Programs, ensuring everyone got the links necessary for their desired classes, as well as were happy with their services. I also had weekly Math Elites classes with Grade 5’s where I would teach around 6 children every week about the fundamentals of Math, and do example questions with them to ensure they understand it. My last main task would be tiktok creation. This is where I would plan out tiktoks from the ideas, down to the execution with the script, record them, then edit them to ensure they are ready to uploading to the public. These relate to my academic studies as teaching the fundamentals of math to children really allow me to internalize many concepts of core math that are necessary for engineering. Virtual program management allows a lot of room to enhance my management skills, critical thinking, and attention to detail, as these are all necessary for this task. I need to ensure all the links sent are correct and check the calendar. All program links look very similar to each other so i have to ensure I check everything to make sure its exact. This helps with attention in detail that would be necessary for engineering as one mistake could have heavy repercussions.
How did your co-op experience contribute to your personal and professional development? Were there any unexpected challenges or benefits?
I’m enhancing my communication skills by staying close and updated with my small group of fellow waterloo university coops that I work with. I make sure that we are all aware of what our tasks are, and offer each other help/ reach out for help when necessary. Especially with the new addition of HS Coops, I must manage and communicate closely with all of my 12 HS Coops. I had to make clear instructions for them to ensure they knew what they were expected to do. This role has also pushed me to be more extroverted as so much communication is needed. As someone who was always more introverted and shy, this role requires me to be louder and speak much more than I am usually used to.
Can you describe a specific project or accomplishment from your co-op that you’re particularly proud of, and how it helped you grow as a student and a professional?
Learning the process of making TikToks is something I am proud of. Though it is small, I had come into this task with no prior knowledge at all. I started with brainstorming ideas, planning the script, filming, editing, and then publishing with captions and hashtags. Our first tiktok got ~17 likes, however, our later ones began to get ~40 likes average, which is not a lot, but was much more than I expected. This allowed me to see what the audience on TikTok was more interested in and how I should approach TikTok in the future. TikTok as a task allows me to think more from other peoples perspective, always thinking about what the customer wants more.