This year’s Co-operative Education Student Champion Award recipient
To the Awards Committee,
Dan Nenadov, 5th Year Biosystems Engineering.
Enrolling in the Co-Op program within the Faculty of Engineering has had a profound impact on my University career and my personal growth. The benefits that I have received and the contributions I have been able to give back have made my Co-Op experience exceptionally rewarding.
I have always had an appreciation for the most remote areas of Canada and immediately jumped at the chance to work in the Canadian Arctic. Any doubts I had with my decision evaporated quickly when I realized the scope of work I was responsible for and the awesomeness of the Arctic.
The excitement of moving to a remote Hamlet and being introduced to an entirely new culture have led to meaningful personal development. I was able to learn about (and partake) in many aspects of the Inuit way of life, which has left me with lifelong friends and irreplaceable memories. The ability of Northerners to thrive, in one of the planet’s harshest climates was something that I am grateful to have experienced firsthand.
From an academic standpoint, the real-world project management experience and job training that I received has been invaluable. It has helped to make me a more effective student, has improved my time management skills, and has allowed me to make more meaningful contributions to the group projects, skills that are essential to upper year engineering courses. The wide range of projects that I worked on have illustrated the importance of cross-disciplinary education and given me a newfound appreciation for a diverse education and courses outside my immediate area of study.
Professionally, I was exposed and immersed in all aspects of engineering and project management and responsible for making critical decisions on both large and small projects. I was able to work on a wide variety of infrastructure projects, ranging from water treatment plants, to sewage lagoons, to airport runways, and office buildings. Having such a diverse work portfolio greatly increased my knowledge of budget management, engineering, and vastly improved my communication skills.
The most rewarding aspect of my Co-Op experience has been the opportunity to create and share a framework to solve a problem that I am passionate about, the need for engineers in Nunavut. With the twofold approach of promoting Co-Op opportunities for engineering students and encouraging Nunavut and Inuit youth to enroll in engineering at the U of M, I hope that I have helped to establish a partnership that will endure.
Overall, I am thankful for the help, encouragement, support, and cooperation that I have received from both the Co-Op program and the Government of Nunavut and am very proud of what I have gained and the achievements that we have made.
I would like to thank you for your time and appreciate your consideration of my application.
Sincerely,
Dan Nenadov
5th Year Biosystems Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Manitoba