2 minute read
My Co-op Experience Last Summer (The Glen, Winter 2024)
In early 2023, the Grade 11 students were presented with the opportunity to partake in the cooperative education experience. With a variety of options, including working for Qvella and the Toronto Zoo, I ultimately decided the best fit for me was a placement at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Alongside some friends, I was placed in the NICU and Mother and Baby (MBU) departments each weekday during the month of July, from the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Our responsibilities varied from day to day, however some of our more prominent tasks included preparing Zoom meetings for parents of the NICU patients, and covering the front desk in the MBU.
Regardless of which placement you choose, each position at Mount Sinai is extremely hands-on, and requires lots of communication with both patients and medical professionals in each department. Throughout my time working at Sinai, I gained strong interpersonal skills through interactions with parents and staff members, and was forced to put my organizational and time-management skills to the test when confronted with new tasks.
During the month I spent at the hospital, I was able to form connections with both the nurses working on the floor, as well as the future and current med-school students volunteering in each department. Each person had a new and exciting perspective on this particular field of work, and through hearing of their experiences both at Sinai and in post-secondary school, I took a great interest in the medical field, and recognized that I would be interested in studying science in the upcoming years.
All in all, co-op is a great way to get a sense of what you want to study in university, and allows you to form strong connections with older students who can help guide and mentor you with post-secondary planning. Co-op was an incredibly rewarding experience which helped me to gain a better understanding of which profession I am interested in pursuing, and ultimately created lasting memories for both myself and my peers.
