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The annual Co-op Student of the Year award recognizes three students who display exceptional job and academic achievements, and contribute in a meaningful way to cooperative education and extracurricular activities at McMaster and in the community. Kyle, Traky and Jessica were among the 383 students who were registered in co-op programs and completed 507 work terms with employers across North America in 2019.

Kyle worked in the lab of Michael Brook, Chair in Sustainable Silicone Polymers with the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology in the Faculty of Science. Traky completed her summer and fall co-op work terms with Toronto Dominion Bank while Jessica completed co-op work terms in the lab of Gang Zheng, Canada Research Chair in Cancer Nanomedicine and a professor of Medical Biophysics with University Health Network.

Cooperative Education is an integrated approach to higher education that enables highly motivated students to alternate academic terms with paid, relevant work experience. Science co-op students complete a standard academic degree program, as well as three or four co-op work terms in jobs related to their studies.

Congratulations to the other 21 students who were nominated by employers for Co-op Student of the Year honours: Gabby Noble, Andrea Acosta, Allysia Chin, Meghan Pepler, Genevieve Perono, Marsella Bishop, Maria Denk, Valerie Tomassetti, Julie Earle, Jeff Zabel, Yordan Stoyanov, Usman Jamshed, Zhouhang Feng, Arshdeep Bal, Danielle Pazdzior, Sharjana Nirmalathasan, Gianluca Situm, Emma Bohn, Skuhmandeep Sidu, Allesia Calvo and Alyssa Burrows.