Last week’s CEWIL/ECAIT Canada conference sessions were simply incredible. Some takeaways that resonated with me!

Chantal Leblanc and Catherine Lamy-Pilon from L'École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) took us through a fantastic presentation of Festistages – a yearly career fair and festival for students who must secure a work term in engineering. The team hosts nearly 170 employers (!) each year, along with a week of student workshops and prep, and a networking event the final eve of the fair. This was exciting to learn about!

Ainsley Goldman presented her insightful doctoral research on Professional Identity Formation in Work-Integrated Learning. She emphasized the importance of student reflection in WIL, yet also highlighted that reflection is highly relational. We learn and process with each other, not only on our own, and this applies to how WIL practitioners can design reflections with the students we work with.

Dr. Kate J. Cassidy spoke brilliantly to the essential psychological nutrients we need as humans: competence, connection, and alignment with self and values. Our motivation and well-being depend on the extent to which our nutrient bucket is filled. ChatGPT and AI weaken how we receive and interact with these nutrients. When we use ChatGPT, we think we are using a tool, when in reality, ‘we are interacting with a system that reorganizes how we think, communicate, connect and learn.’ Kate also spoke to skills that we can all develop in the age of AI. My favourites? Relational presence and metacognition (surprise, surprise 😁).

Thank you to everyone who presented and to everyone I shared conversations, learnings and laughter with. It was my first time at CEWIL, and it was truly wonderful to connect with so many others working in WIL 🥳