It continues to be a privilege to connect faculty and partners in designing and delivering meaningful experiences for students—experiences that also bring value to our community and employer partners. The demand for partner-engaged experiential learning remains strong, and once again in 2024–25, we exceeded expectations by supporting nearly 4,500 student experiences—an 18% increase from 2023–24.
We’re also proud to report that 94% of all 2024 graduates from Laurier’s undergraduate programs participated in at least one curricular experiential learning opportunity during their studies.
This past year, in Fall 2024, we launched a new interdisciplinary placement course based out of our Brantford campus. The course enables partners to draw on students from a wide variety of academic programs, gaining diverse perspectives and contributions. Students benefit from flexibility, choosing either part-time paid positions or volunteer/training roles with local organizations and employers to fulfill the course requirement. One of our partners, Brant United Way, shared their experience in this course at the 2025 Summit for Creative Community Solutions in May. The Brant Museum and the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie also took part in the panel presentation.
Another highlight from 2024–25 was the introduction of a community service-learning project in a second-year Sociology course, Qualitative Methods. Students engaged directly with partners—including Supportive Housing of Waterloo (SHOW) and Basic Income Waterloo Region—to learn about their work, priorities, and challenges. Students then developed and presented research proposals to these partners. In Spring 2025, Master of Applied Politics students carried out several of these proposals, continuing the work in partnership. This kind of sustained engagement exemplifies our commitment to building long-term, meaningful relationships with the community.
We have a number of courses in which students are working on projects with hyper-local, small and medium-sized organizations such as Four All Ice Cream, Lady Glaze Donuts, Good Practice Physiotherapy, Games on Tap, Indulgence Studio & Spa, and Gibson Sound & Vision.
Finally, we take this opportunity to appreciate and thank our Assistant Vice President, Experiential Learning & Career Development, Jan Basso. After more than 50 years at Laurier, Jan has retired and we want to wish her all the best. Jan’s vision and support for our work in Community & Workplace Partnerships has profoundly shaped our direction and driven meaningful collaboration, expanding our reach, and creating lasting impact for our students and the community and employer partners we work with.
I started my Laurier journey in 2019 as an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Arts. In 2023 I returned to Laurier to earn my Master of Arts degree in Applied Politics. My time in grad school was greatly enhanced by the hands-on research and outreach experience I gained with local non-profits through opportunities coordinated by the CWP team.
Knowing first-hand the value of these opportunities, I was thrilled to move into a program assistant role with CWP in the Fall of 2024. I have loved getting to connect with our many incredible community partners as well as staff, faculty, and students from across the university. Experiential learning was instrumental in my educational journey and I look forward to supporting its continuation at Laurier.
We collaborate with external partners to offer meaningful experiential learning opportunities to Laurier students. Our partners offer placements, life case studies, research projects, problem-based learning opportunities and job shadows.
Results were from 131 responses to our partnership survey.
94% would consider offering experiential learning opportunities again in the future.
90% would recommend working with CWP to peers/colleagues.
We had several partners who provided opportunities for multiple students:
We asked our contacts to share about these partnerships from their perspective.
I am happy that Laurier and Waterloo Cooperative Preschool (WCP) have shared a special partnership with each other for more than 12 years now. WCP welcomes community service-learning (CSL) students to support our Co-operative Preschool in a mutually beneficial agreement. The students gain hands-on learning experiences, have spontaneous learning opportunities and can apply what they see/experience in their studies at Laurier.
Most students are studying psychology in some way and find that when faced with varying developmental needs and challenges during their placements that they learn new, practical child guidance skills and language to use with toddler and preschool aged children. After a thorough orientation, the students join our morning or afternoon classes supporting the children and educators in their daily activities and routines. These valuable volunteers ensure that we can provide a higher quality program with higher supervision and able support to individuals with complex or emerging needs.
We are fortunate for this partnership as it affects the community as a whole when we are able to accommodate children experiencing autism or other exceptionalities because we have the support in the classrooms in order to do so. The students have always been valuable to the success of the program and we have never turned a child away due to their needs as a result of the extra support we get from the students.
Many students are hired on as supply or support staff after their placements. Several CLS students continued to volunteer after their placements and gained precious relationships and experience due to their ongoing commitment. We have had 2 CLS students on staff for over 5 years now and have been able to accommodate their school schedules along the way as they strive to reach their goals. We are very proud of the students who volunteer at Waterloo Cooperative Preschool and continue to support this program more each year. This year we hosted nearly 50 CLS students, as our operations grew and we look forward to another great bunch next year!!
Thank you for this ongoing partnership and collaboration!
Partnering with Laurier has been an excellent experience for our team. The students come prepared, engaged, and eager to learn, which has allowed them to make a real impact in our clinic while gaining meaningful practical experience. Looking forward to continuing to support students as they explore their career paths.
Working with Laurier was great! The students were very thoughtful and considerate when entering our spaces and conducting their assessments. The work that they completed was also very valuable for us and is being used to support some work we are currently doing to improve accessibility in our spaces.
Throughout 2024/25, we have continued to foster the relationship with Laurier faculty to grow partner-engaged experiential learning opportunities for students.
Get to know one of our new faculty partners and read about the reasons they embeded experiential learning into their course.
This past winter 2025 term, I incorporated an optional Community Service-Learning (CSL) placement in my newly developed class FS209C: Food and Identity in Film. FS209C examines the intersections between food, foodways, and the cinema by focusing on how the representation of food become markers of personal, national, cultural, and gender identities. Two of the main objectives of my course were to provide students with opportunities to explore the intersections between food and film studies; and to develop an appreciation for the personal and political relationships that food and representations of food has to one’s identities and traditions through academic concepts and community experiences. Therefore, my course was a natural fit to incorporate a CSL component as it helps students to move outside of their comfort zone within the classroom; and to apply their analysis of how food is represented on the big screen to real-life implications of global foodways, food justice, insecurity, sustainability, equity and activism within the K-W community.
The students who chose the CSL option had placements at such community partners as the food banks, food kitchens, the Distro, among others, either working behind the scenes like packing and organizing food donations, or in the frontlines distributing food and serving meals to those who experience food insecurity in the community. Students gained a great deal throughout their placement; they learned the importance food not just from a quantitative perspective but also within cultural and social contexts. Food is not only about filling one’s hungry belly, but also about forging social connections within one’s community and developing a sense of cultural identity, dignity, and sense of belonging. Most importantly, many students noted how after their placement, their appreciation for community-based initiatives was deepened.
It has been a pleasure working with the CSL team at Laurier. I received much guidance early on regarding the possibilities of different configurations of incorporating the CSL option within my course assignments. The coordinator team were supportive and extremely gracious with their expertise and time in not only explaining to me what different partners missions are as well as showing me the workings of several of their community partners before the Winter term even began so that I was able better tie course themes and concepts to the design of my lectures and assignments. My students and I had a wonderful experience working with the community Workplace Partnerships Office (CWP). I plan to continue to incorporate CSL option in my class on Food and Identity in Film and will develop another course that will incorporate a CSL component.
100% had a positive overall experience working with CWP.
100% recommended working with CWP to their colleagues.
100% felt that it enhanced the classroom learning environment.
93% felt that it enhanced their teaching practice.
87% felt that it helped them better engage with their students.
100% felt that experiences coordinated by CWP staff were a good fit for the learning goals of their course.
100% felt that CWP staff provided their students with adequate assistance and support.
100% felt that there was adequate communication with CWP staff.
Through the community and workplace partnership experience, we support students as they build connections in the community, and in the programs and initiatives of their community partner organization.
2633 students completed the evaluation with a 59% response rate
Explore our selection of courses offered that included the CWP experience during the 2024/25 academic year. Courses marked with an * indicates that they are new courses.
In all CWP courses, students can link their experience to the Laurier Competency Framework. Over the course of the 2023/24 year, the top five competencies selected across all types of experiential learning in CWP courses were: communication, collaboration and teamwork, critical thinking, adaptability and resiliency and problem solving. Competency data for the 2024/25 year will be available soon.
The bar charts below identifies the number of students who reported they developed the competency through their experiential learning opportunity.
BU459 Marketing and Social Networking students left a lasting impression on Lady Glaze owner, Mark Brown. After developing a customized strategic marketing plan alongside her classmates, fourth-year student, Olivia Kostopoulos was hired by Brown to assist with its implementation.
UU400 student, Marianna Labib, surpassed the expectations of the Brant United Way team during her fall 2024 term placement. The organization emphasizes the tremendous impact of Marianna's legal support, social media strategies, and operating cost reductions.
Learn about the four types of CWP experiences that you can recruit students for.
