I can honestly say that these 13 weeks have been nothing short of amazing, over this time I have learned so much and gained experience that will help me throughout my life. I expected to come in one day a week for 8 hours a day and job shadow someone. I never thought that I would have my own space to work and be able to do so many things on my own. Every Tuesday morning I would meet with Ashley Urquhart (my boss for the day) and she would tell me the plan. If I had any questions that her door was always open, she was always very upbeat and happy, that made it extremely easy to talk to her.

I got into a morning routine of doing certain jobs, I would do Tenders, Google Analytics, and they even let me post on their social media accounts! I got to tweet about news that I thought was important, that was probably one of the best parts of my Co-Op experience. I never thought that they would give a Co-Op student in high school this much responsibility, I am beyond grateful that they did. I always had someone close by to help me if I ever needed anything. The person sitting closest to me was Michael McCurdy, he made the day fun and I got to see how to be professional in the workplace and how to talk to clients over the phone. I worked with a great bunch of people that made this experience a lot of fun and helped me learn new things. My aunt, Patti Farewell, has work at Turner Drake & Partners for 26 years and now I see why, it is a very enjoyable place to work and everyone makes you feel welcome. The owner, Mike Turner, would always talk to me and ask me how things are going, along with his wife Verna, who would always make a point of talking to me and saying how nicely I was dressed, they were nice little conversations that made me smile. One day I got to sit in on a support staff meeting, we got lunch and talked about new ideas for TDP, I felt very included and like I was a part of the team.

The Co-Op interview was with Mark Turner (Vice President of the company) it was professional like a “real” interview would be so that I would be prepared for the actual thing when I go to apply for my full time job later in life. He was very nice and made me excited to start, I later got to work on a small project for him.

Right away I was being trained by two people who did exactly what I wanted to do. Ashley Urquhart and Alex Baird Allen were my safety nets throughout this time. The first few things they let me do on my own was, Tenders- finding new jobs and properties for the company to look at. The next job was Google Analytics- finding out how many people looked at the websites and how many people follow TDP’s social media accounts. They also trained me to do a few other jobs that would help me later, Data Mining- updating client’s information, Media Sheets- updating who they send things to. There were also basic jobs such as, photocopying, mail-outs and manuals. After a bit of time went by I was able to post on the company’s twitter. I was given the job of making a new flyer that would later be sent out to clients, I was surprised that they felt like I was doing well enough to be given a project that important. I spent many hours on it and got nothing but positive feedback. It’s going to be weird not seeing these people for a while, I would really like to come back for my grade 12 Co-Op and give it my all once more. Lastly I liked how much responsibility I had. They gave me my own place to work but it was also around people so I never alone. This is definitely a place I would love at work at after I finish school.

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