Mini Co-op Week 1 - Reflection

Hi everyone! My name is Vilohith and I am a Grade 11 student at Garth Webb Secondary School. In this blog, I will be highlighting my thoughts on the first week of the mini co-op.

To be honest, I was not sure how the co-op would run during the pandemic and felt sketchy about it. But after nearly completing the first week of co-op, I realized that it is an all-embracing marvelous experience!

From Sam Thiara's presentation on personal branding, I learned about personal growth and personal branding- and how important it is to grow as a person. I enjoyed his idea that it is not about what you want to become but who you want to become. Additionally, he talked about the five non-compromisable core elements, which was a pleasure to discuss about. Although I do not know all of my five core elements, one of them is inclusivity. Witnessing someone else being excluded from an event due to their skill level or race does not feel right to me. Throughout the mini co-op, I hope to discover most of my five core elements.

One of my most enjoyable moments during this week was working with my group on our final challenge. Our task was to recruit as many students to the HAP as possible. Frankly, I think me and my group are a little behind schedule, but I believe that we will do a great job! This experience has helped me develop my collaboration skills because now I do not feel hesitant to voice my opinion. I believe these collaboration skills will come in handy in other fields and help me in the future. Throughout the future, I will strive to take another step and take the leadership role in my groups.

Furthermore, I have learnt a lot from the business leadership course content alongside the consultations I have worked on. This week's content focused on communication- both verbal and non-verbal. I learned many new concepts, such as active listening and written communication, alongside a few practical tips for the task. Now it is up to me to practice applying these tips and strive to develop them in the future.

Thank you to all speakers, program managers, and fellow students for a wonderful first week!