For their efforts and achievements during the co-op employment portions of their 2004-2005 academic year, five outstanding Conestoga College students have received awards. Four of these students received awards presented by Conestoga, while the fifth received two awards -- one from a provincial co-op organization and the second from a national organization.
Jaksa Panic is now in the third and final year of the Business Administration - Marketing co-op program at Conestoga. During 2004-2005, he did his co-op term in Kitchener with Fastenal Canada, a manufacturer and distributor of industrial fasteners and tools. He is winner of the college-sector CAFCE Co-op Student of the Year Award, with the accompanying $500 Emery-Dufault Award, plus the $500 Co-op Student of the Year Award presented in Ontario by the organization Education at Work Ontario (EWO).
Since 1994, the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE) has chosen a student each year to receive the CAFCE Co-op Student of the Year Award. This award recognizes a wide variety of achievements -- job performance, academic performance and responsibility, and particular contributions to their employer, to co-operative education, and the community at large. The award is now presented to a college and a university co-operative education student. The two winning students receive a plaque and a cash award.
The cash component is the Emery-Dufault Award established by CAFCE in 2003 in recognition of the contributions of two of the founding fathers of co-operative education in Canada, Les Emery and George Dufault. The Emery-Default Awards have been made possible through the generosity of the Dufault family.
Jaksa Panic is from Waterloo and graduated from Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational Institute before entering Conestoga.
The university-sector winner is Jit Seng Chen, a third-year Bachelor of Mathematics, Honours Actuarial Science co-operative education student at the University of Waterloo. Jit Seng completed his work term at KPMG LLP Canada.
In addition, Conestoga has selected four students for its own Co-op Student of the Year Awards, in recognition of their hard work and dedication during the 2004-2005 academic year.
Each of these awards is $250 and sponsored through contributions by Conestoga co-op employers such as Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, Dynamic Store Fixtures and the Ontario Realty Corporation.
The Conestoga winners are as follows:
Stephanie Kirkey of Waterloo is in the postgraduate Human Resources Management program. She is a graduate of both Lambton Central Collegiate and Vocational Institute, and Wilfrid Laurier University. Her co-op experience was with Maple Leaf Consumer Foods in Kitchener.
Alecia Lantz of Neustadt is also in the Human Resources Management program. She did her co-op term in Wingham, at Wescast Industries, a manufacturer of manifolds and other powertrain components for automobiles and trucks. She graduated from Hanover's John Diefenbaker Secondary School and from Fanshawe College before attending Conestoga.
Michael Schmied of Cambridge is in the baccalaureate Architecture - Project and Facility Management program. His co-op employment was with North America Construction, construction contractors and project managers, in Morriston.
Peter Vander Klippe is also from Cambridge and also in Architecture - Project and Facility Management. His co-op experience was in Guelph, with Ontario Realty Corporation.