Seven innovative pandemic work placements

Event Management students are hosting a virtual cooking class and fundraiser called Cooking Up Hope to benefit the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH).

Local chef Amanda Rider, from Dunlop Street Diner, will teach the interactive online class on Sunday, March 28 at 5:30 p.m. Participants will learn how to create a three-course meal from the comfort of their own kitchens.

Twenty-one graduating students from the Communicative Disorders Assistant program (CDA) took a unique approach to their final clinical requirements this summer, offering virtual care to their clients through Webex appointments, rather than in-person therapy.

The students were able to meet learning outcomes while delivering high-quality speech and language therapy to  clients between the ages of three and 74.

Safe Plates is an informational and resource guidebook for local restaurants, compiling everything from COVID-19 sanitary guidelines to possible funding support sources. It was designed to help address some of the industry’s challenges with reopening after lockdown, including navigating regulations, contingency planning, and increased operational costs.

The concept for Safe Plates was shared with the Town of Collingwood in late June. It was beta tested with local operators in early July. By mid-July, the town was sharing the guidebook with regional tourism organisations and other municipalities.

A team of six from Georgian’s paramedic programs are travelling to a fly-in Indigenous community in northern Ontario to administer COVID-19 vaccinations.

Georgian is the only college in Ontario to participate in Operation Remote Immunity, a vaccination program developed between Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and Ornge, the province’s provider of air ambulance and critical care transport services.

Two Georgian paramedic instructors and four students will travel to Eabametoong First Nation to administer second doses of the Moderna vaccine from March 22 to 26. Eabametoong is approximately 350 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

When in-person clinical placements were not possible due to COVID-19 last summer, Georgian wanted to provide students with a meaningful form of experience. Through a partnership with Georgian Bay General Hospital  Director of Volunteers in Midland, 21 Bachelor of Science in Nursing students were paired with an older adult volunteer in their community.

The nursing students will have one-on-one interactions with the older adults via telephone or through secure web-based platforms over the coming months to reduce social isolation. Interactions will lead to the creation of a “Connections Plan” that will assist older adults to stay connected and promote their social, mental and physical well-being during pandemic-related restrictions.

Rohith Preetham Sunkara and Arshveer Uppal, second-year Computer Programming and Analysis students at Georgian, and co-founders of Dream Destination, wrapped up a successful eCo-op term in fall 2020.

“At Dream Destination, we help people to build their dream adventure, whether they want to go on a vacation, do some sightseeing or a historical journey. We specialize in new arrivals to Canada.”

An eCo-op is an entrepreneurial co-op where a student can start and grow a business during the course of a semester. Students accepted into an eCo-op receive support, resources and mentorship from the Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre (HBEC) as they go through business planning, development and potentially launch their initiative while they’re still in school.

When Emilie Ah-Fock’s in-person co-op work term fell through after COVID-19 hit, she was initially nervous about what she would do to complete the co-op requirement of her Interactive Media Design – Web program. But thanks to an ‘alternative co-op’ pilot project at Georgian, this summer, she completed an Innovation Co-op (iCo-op).

Emilie’s iCo-op team  worked with HBEC to help HeyLocal, an online marketplace focused on providing businesses in Barrie a simple platform to connect with consumers. HeyLocal was created to keep online spending local during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company launched an eCommerce marketplace that helps businesses reach more customers while simultaneously helping more Canadians shop locally. The platform also helps businesses across Canada.

These opportunities are your chance to gain experience as part of your program. There are eight types of work-integrated learning at Georgian. Learn about them in this infographic.