Samantha worked closely with Stefanie Corona, the Lead of Student Learning and Professional Development. “It was a pleasure to work with Samantha,” says Ms. Corona. “She had the opportunity to apply her previous internship experiences in an academic environment. This also brought a fresh perspective to our team. In particular, I continue to benefit from the evaluation forms that Samantha designed for our workshops which I now use to obtain student feedback and incorporate it into the development of future workshops.”
Samantha Krajewski
"I'm supporting students engaging in online internships."
Samantha Krajewski, a bachelor’s student in Human Resources Management, received the Experiential Learning Grant to complete an internship within the Institute of Co-operative Education at Concordia. The grant helped fund a multitude of projects to accommodate a shift to remote learning. Samantha gained valuable exposure to the field of Training & Development, while applying their prior knowledge regarding the ins and outs of recruitment. In the summer of 2020, for a period of 10 weeks, Ms. Krajewski worked remotely with the Student Learning and Professional Development team, which focuses on preparing and supporting co-op students when searching for and completing internships.
Together, they made efforts to ensure that students were equipped with adequate resources to find placements in a particularly difficult job market resulting from the Covid-19 Pandemic. “I worked on several projects including creating Compass navigation instruction sheets, modifying the co-op resumé templates, screening resumés and creating an interview guide for a workshop facilitator position, leading online workshops preparing students for virtual job interviews, as well as developing my own content and designing evaluations for various online seminars,” says Ms. Krajewski, looking back on her internship. The knowledge she gained through courses such as Workplace Staffing and Planning, as well as her own experiences in Talent Acquisition, served to make modifications to the standard co-op resumé template, screen resumés and create interview guides.
In addition, when developing content for a workshop on LinkedIn, Samantha was able to do research in regards to LinkedIn features used in the HR field. Ms. Krajewski claims that this acquired knowledge will help her as she goes out on her own job search and be used as a recruitment tool when she becomes an HR professional herself. When musing on what the most rewarding part of the internship was, Samantha states that “mentoring students during the online workshops” was particularly valuable. “I was able to pass down my advice as an HR professional and as a co-op student by giving students a new perspective on the interview process, in addition to relating to their plights seeing as I have been in their exact shoes. I take particular pride in helping others grow their skills and confidence through continuous improvement. I was able to work on my communication skills, interpersonal skills, research skills, and creativity.”
“Overall, the experience was incredibly rewarding and it was a pleasure to work with people who are truly devoted to what they do! I will take all that I learned with me as I enter the workforce and I hope to continue in the future with graduate studies pursuing my interest for human development and developmental processes. My goal is to help others, and myself, achieve personal and professional growth to ensure employment success and general well-being.”
This article was written by Emily Andrews.
