into the WILderness

We're back with the third and final chapter in the CEWIL Conference Chronicles! A 3 part series of short episodes recorded live during the 2025 CEWIL Canada Conference in Hamilton, ON. Spoiler alert if you didn't look at the runtime, this one isn't short! It's not everyday you get to sit across the recording desk from someone who currently works in a role you once held. On this epi...

We're back with part 2 in the CEWIL Conference Chronicles! A 3 part series of short episodes captured live during the 2025 CEWIL Canada Conference in Hamilton, ON. On this episode I sit down with published experiential education researcher and fellow podcaster, Dr. Bill Heinrich. Many impromptu talks in hotel lobbies, conference presentation halls and dinner conversations finally lead to us hi...

Welcome to the CEWIL Conference Chronicles! A 3 part series of short episodes captured live during the 2025 CEWIL Canada Conference in Hamilton, ON. On this episode I sit down with long time friend of the show, David DiPietro as he prepares for his conference presentation on The Innovation Mentorship Program - an annual experiential learning project where NC students, faculty and staff, collaborat...

It's been one year to the day since the last episode dropped and I'm thrilled to announce we're back for Season 5! To celebrate the National Day of WIL, we've got a special episode queued up with 4 absolutely outstanding and inspiring students. Tune in and listen to their stories, hear about their WIL journeys and share in their accomplishments this year. Guests: Phoenix Seelochan , University of...

To celebrate the National Day of WIL, we're back with Season 4! I'm kicking off this season by diving deeper into the stories of CEWIL Canada's 2023 Students of the Year. First up is Jayde Medland (College and CEGEP, Co-op), who is a recent graduate of Algonquin College's Interactive Media Design program and is currently a Communications Officer with Natural Resources Canada. On th...

Sept. 26, 2023 marks 50 years for CEWIL Canada. From its origins as CAFCE in 1973 with a small group of passionate individuals to the leading organization on all things Work-Integrated Learning in Canada, it's been a journey. It's important to reflect on these 50 years, celebrate the successes and identify where positive change can be made. You don't exist as an organization for this l...

It's been almost two years since I got my boots dirty in the Ag-tech industry and chatted all things agriculture with the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC). Joining Jennifer Wright on this episode is Sean Rudd, co-founder of Korotu, a software company that turns remote sensing data into actionable nature-based solutions that are helping to combat climate change - it's A....

Live from the 2023 CEWIL Conference in Halifax, NS, I sit down with Cara Krezek and Anne Marie Fannon fresh off a feisty debate in their session about making changes to the way CEWIL Canada accredits cooperative education programs in this country. The crux of this discussion focusses on two main points, ensuring a student ends on an academic term and the notion of part-time co-op. Guests: Cara Kre...

Live from the 2023 CEWIL Conference in Halifax, NS, I sit down with Julia Zhu, Associate Director of Cooperative Education at Brock University to explore how she and her team are taking co-op beyond the work term. We chat career competencies, skills translation and debrief her session on building a sustainable staffing model to support this enhanced approach to cooperative education. Guest: Julia...

Live from the 2023 CEWIL Conference in Halifax, NS, I sit down with Cherine Zananiri, Director of Experiential Learning and Co-operative Education at Concordia University to talk about their Beat the Odds Internship program - an inclusive and flexible internship program that levels the playing field for students in need. Guest: Cherine Zananiri , Concordia University, QC "Fallen Leaves"...

Live from the 2023 CEWIL Conference in Halifax, NS, I sit down with Cora Dupuis, Co-op Coordinator at Brandon University and Ph. D. student in Educational Studies at Brock University who is researching what we know (and don't know) about Co-op Supervisors. We chat about existing research in this area, what motivates someone to become a co-op supervisor and what institutions can do to better pr...

Live from the 2023 CEWIL Conference, I sit down with one of our sponsors, Elina Chow, Founder of Jot Tech - a networking app that lets you build strong relationships and eliminate the post conference admin work of laying business cards on a table trying to remember who each belongs to. On this episode, we discuss the origins of the platform, how it can fill a need with today's student and othe...

It's National WIL month for us here in Canada with this year's theme #WILinternational - tag it in your posts!! That means another virtual flight for me and this time my boarding pass lands me in Wollongong, Australia where the weather is lovely this time of year. On this episode I am joined by the wonderful Michelle Eady, Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Wollong...

Just over a year ago, I looked into Canada's tourism and hospitality industry to find out how it was trying to recover and the role that WIL played in getting more students and new grads into this sector. Fast forward to today and it's still very much in a state of recovery, but in a better place than it was in early 2022. I am joined once again by Joe Baker to discuss Tourism HR Canada's role in...

How do you celebrate the career of someone who has spent 36 years in the wilderness that is Work Integrated Learning? You dedicate an entire episode of your WIL podcast to them, that's how! On this episode I am joined by the one and only Scott Davis, who, after 36 years at the University of Waterloo is trading in his office for an Adirondack, his parking spot for a bike trail and his daily dose of...

There’s something to be said about gaining actual experience in your field of study prior to graduating. It’s helpful on a number of levels; do I like this? Do I dislike it? Do I have a full understanding of what’s involved in this industry/sector? Are there other avenues I could explore or paths I could take? With some disciplines, it’s extremely difficult to get answers to these questions withou...

As we near the end of 2022, I am joined once again by my amazing co-host Charlene Marion to recap the year that was! It's our very own top 10, CEWIL style. Tune in for a quick recap of our favourite highlights from the last 365 - all of which can be summarized in one word, EXCITING! There's a ton for me to be thankful for this holiday season, including the amazing team at CEWIL Canada and to all o...

Since Feb. 2021, CEWIL Canada has been distributing funding nationwide through The CEWIL iHub! It operates as a centre of expertise that provides grant-based funding to enable and promote curricular work-integrated learning (WIL) focusing primarily on industry projects, entrepreneurial WIL, field placements and service learning. This partnership with the Government of Canada's Innovative WIL progr...

It's not a secret that non-profit organizations (NPOs) stand to benefit from engaging in WIL just as much, if not more, than their for-profit counterparts. However there are a significant number of challenges that often emerge when partnering with NPOs or that prevent the partnership in the first place. This is further complicated the farther you get from a metropolitan hub that houses some NPO "h...

When I kicked off Season 2 I mentioned I would be joined by some co-hosts to get into the weeds on some more opinion driven topics. After some technical difficulties and scheduling conflicts, I am pleased to welcome David DiPietro back to the show in the co-host seat. Fresh into his new role as Manager, Business Development at Niagara College, David joins me to have an honest conversation about ou...

A few episodes ago I went International for the first time and sat down with Dr. Trevor Gerhardt. On that episode he introduced me to an alternative learning pathway called Degree Apprenticeships – I said, why don’t we have these in Canada? Some things have an odd way of timing out as literally two days later I’m reading an article in the Toronto Star about how Degree Apprenticeships could solve C...

For many practitioners in the WIL space there’s an underlying goal that by participating in WIL, students will discover a passion and/or find their way into the world of work. Strong evidence of this exists in co-op but other forms of WIL don’t have as direct a link. Now every once and a while it happens, a student connects with a community partner, and project, an internship host and an opportuni...

I've often heard stories about this WIL utopia where students from any program, any discipline can unite in one curricular course, work together, obtain course credit and benefit their community - all while developing and strengthening their skills, setting them up for their future after graduation. Turns out this ideal scenario exists at York University and it's called C4! On this episode I sit d...

Late September is the official launch of Recruitment SZN on post secondary campuses across the country. The reasoning behind why students select a school is one of the great mysteries of our time...well, not really, there are trends. So I wondered, where does Work Integrated Learning fall on the priority list of a prospective student? How do schools leverage WIL during the recruitment window, or d...

A first for the show - I'm going across the pond to London, England...well figuratively speaking. Canada is a big country and has some pretty amazing people, but we aren't the only ones doing cool and innovative things when it comes to WIL. This week I sit down with Dr. Trevor Gerhardt , Lead Academic on Work Integrated Learning at Pearson College and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy...