Tanya's November Reflection
Overall, what aspects of the workplace culture stood out to you, and how did they impact your experience at U+/YRES?
The culture of workplace autonomy stood out to me immediately when I first joined U+. During my first month (January 2024), I was already given freedom to decide the order in which I complete assigned tasks and to decide how to go about projects in line with the overarching organizational goals. For example, one of my first projects was to work on the 2024 weekend camp curriculum. With no previous curriculum in place, I engaged in many discussions with my mentor, a returning university co-op student, who trusted my judgment and planning. Shortly after, I was leading the project and delegating tasks to other university co-op students to design certain activities and lesson slides and to deliver them on certain camp dates.
Autonomy in the workplace also comes with a sense of responsibility and accountability for the successes and risk-mitigations of projects. Although this may sound daunting, it was the right level of challenge for me as I wanted to do work that could have an impact on the community and would actually bring a benefit to the organization.
Now as a co-op/placement supervisor, I am given a lot more freedom in deciding how and when I want to work. Other university co-op students are assigned days they must be in office but I can come and go as I please – some days I pop into the office just to meet with co-op teachers and spend the rest of the day working from home. I can slot in hours where I have to step away from work during the day for a medical appointment or shift my hours around to accommodate for a university assignment deadline for example, as well as my supervisor and those I supervise know they can always easily reach me regardless.
How do you think your work has impacted your team and the organization as a whole? Is there any feedback you’ve received that guides your understanding of this?
As the co-op supervisor, I help review some of the work other university co-op students have completed to ensure that they help us reach organizational goals. I would like to think that helping them review their flyers or project plans is beneficial as I have caught errors and can help resolve them early on.
For the organization itself, I believe that I have been a good U+/YRES representative to all those I have interacted with. One example is the Math Elites classes I taught for Grade 1-6 students on Mondays at Angus Glen Library. Many of the students in my classes were participative and all were willing to work on review worksheets that I have designed. Even if they were stuck on questions, they proactively asked me and the library volunteers for help. On the last day of class, half of the parents asked me about whether we will have another series of classes in 2025 and most of the students that were forced to attend the class shared that they do not hate math as much now.
Another example would be establishing and maintaining community partnerships with NPOs and academic partnerships with institutions like the University of Canada West (UCW), the University of Toronto (UofT), and York University (YorkU). I attended many networking events and volunteer fairs on behalf of our sister organization YRES as the Volunteer Manager, and many organizations were enthusiastic about future partnerships when I followed-up with them via email. Under YRES, I have partnered with a business professor at UCW since the spring/summer term to work with his master’s students to help YRES’s business expansion. On behalf of U+, I supported YorkU’s Science Co-op CEWIL project this fall term by participating in a career panel and helping to provide an interpersonal workplace challenge a team of YorkU science co-op students must solve.
If you could give a piece of advice to your past self at the start of the term, what would it be?
To be frank, I would tell myself to buy more snacks and beverages to help push through the long days. In September to early November, Sundays and Mondays were my busiest days as I had to host U+ Gavel Club sessions at Aaniin Community Center in the afternoon and attend virtual Global Youth Gavel Club meetings in the evenings to organize speech contests with other gavel clubs in Ontario. My math classes were also on Monday evenings at 5-8 PM at Angus Glen Library so I had to make the slides and worksheets for the classes on these two days. of the week. (Other days of the week are usually spent meeting with high school co-op teachers and supervising high school co-op and placements across various projects or attending events.) I usually need a snack before my math classes to make sure I have enough energy to keep up with the energy levels of elementary school students. A cup of hot chocolate or matcha latte cheers me up as well when I get stressed.
Please give a shoutout to someone who deserves employee of the month and briefly describe why.
I would like to shine a spotlight on Jessica this month as she has taken on a big role in managing a team of UWaterloo students on various digital content creating projects as YRES collaborated with UWaterloo through the Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate program. She has also stepped up to lead two Toastmasters with Seniors sessions with different community partners.