Business student selected as Camosun’s top Co-op/Internship Student of the Year

Dylan Kaplan, a Bachelor of Business Administration student, majoring in Camosun’s Human Resources and Leadership Management program, was selected as the overall winner of 2020 Yvonne Thompson Page (YTP) Co-op/Internship Student of the Year.

"Congratulations to Dylan and all of this year's co-op education winners," says Camosun President Sherri Bell. "Our co-op students continually go above and beyond academic requirements by clearly demonstrating outstanding applied skills and leadership capabilities in their chosen fields."

Each year the Applied Learning, Co-operative Education, and Career Services department selects an overall student to receive the Yvonne Thompson Page (YTP) Co-op/Internship Student of the Year award which recognizes an outstanding co-operative education or internship student at Camosun. The award was established by Yvonne’s friends and colleagues at Camosun, and pays tribute to the energy, enthusiasm, and dedication that Yvonne brought to her position as the co-op coordinator in the Office Administration program.

"I was so impressed reading the applicants for this award, especially the amount students and employers had to adapt this year given the ongoing pandemic," says Claudia Sperling, Director of Applied Learning, Co-operative Education and Career Services. "It was hard to pick the overall winner, but Dylan excelled tremendously in his work term role and has contributed to helping promote co-operative education to other students and institutions."

Dylan started his work term as the Support Coordinator for the Engagement and Communications Group at InnovativeCommunities.Org Foundation (ICO), a Victoria-based charity with operations in over a dozen countries. Within his role, Dylan was responsible for onboarding new members, defining role responsibilities and creating presentations.

"Dylan’s dedication and commitment was evident from the start of his work term," says Dawn Robson, Co-CEO of ICO. "Part way through his work term, he was offered the role of Leader of the Communications Group. Dylan grew his team to 11 people and he worked diligently to provide them with the necessary support and direction, which was even more difficult given the COVID-19 pandemic."

As the Leader of the Communications Group, Dylan reorganized the department so it functions better, launched the ICO World Journal newsletter and oversaw the creation of a communications toolkit.

"My co-op work term allowed me to gain more applied experience with many concepts covered by my program classes," explains Dylan. "Despite memorizing the advantages of different methods of creating job descriptions, I never actually understood how many of the advantages could be significant in the real world. Working with job descriptions in the real world made the applicability of these advantages very clear."

One of the projects Dylan worked on during his work term was a comprehensive engagement plan, which included strengthening employer relationships with post-secondary institutions that have Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs, and highlights the mutual benefit of including WIL students in company HR plans.

"When working on filling several newly created vacancies with my supervisor, I spotted a perfect position for a co-op student," says Dylan. "I suggested posting the position on the Camosun’s co-op job board, leading to us selecting a co-op student for the position."

By participating in a work term, Dylan’s outlook on his future career has shifted from strictly being in HR to wanting a role with boarder responsibilities.

"The wide range of tasks I worked on during my co-op gave me a taste of what it is like to work in a much more generalist role, and I loved it," says Dylan. "I gained exposure in a broad range of HR areas as well as in other fields like communications and management. I now plan to pursue a post-degree diploma in marketing after completing my BBA and pursue a generalist role that allows me to leverage both skill sets."

School recipients of the Yvonne Thompson Page (YTP) Co-op/Internship Student of the Year Award
A top student from each School with a co-op or internship program was selected amongst the nominees, with one Camosun student ultimately chosen as the overall Yvonne Thompson Page Co-op/Internship Student of the Year.

Overall YTP Co-op/Internship Student of the Year and Business Co-op/Internship Student of the Year: Dylan Kaplan
Program: Bachelor of Business Administration, Human Resources & Leadership Major
Job Title: Lead - Communications Group 
Employer: InnovativeCommunities.Org Foundation (ICO)