2025 Year in Review

Rebrand

We began 2025 with a refreshed identity as the Science Careers & Experience Centre. This rebrand showcases our renewed commitment to engaging students in an enriching career preparation and self-discovery journey and providing them with meaningful professional experiences that support their professional development. Our tagline, Design Your Future Today! Is our invitation to students to engage in this exciting journey with us.

Students voted to increase work-integrated learning opportunities and expand career programming

Through the Science Careers & Experience referendum that took place in February 2025, students told us they wanted enhanced career programming and more opportunities to gain professional experience before graduation. We passed the referendum, allowing us to hire a Manager, Career Education & Professional Development, and a Program Manager, Work-Integrated Learning and Professional Experience. With these two new roles, we are in a position to optimize careers and experience programming.

Advancing Tomorrow’s Science Careers

In March 2025, we concluded the Advancing Tomorrow’s Science Careers project – a project that came to fruition through the Strategic Alignment Fund at McMaster University.

We researched and collaborated to create the Science Professional Competency Framework; a set of eight key competencies needed for success in the professional world. We mapped the competencies across the core curriculum and established that our students will be proficient in all eight competencies by the time they graduate. We also introduced competency reflection tools to co-op students and students who are engaged in work-integrated learning so that they can reflect on their progress in developing these competencies.

We also created Design Your Science Career, a course that aligns with our tagline, “Design Your Future Today.” Eight team members have been trained through Stanford’s Life Design course, each one of them applying the powerful methodology to career appointments, workshops and job search guidance.

This year was the first time that Design Your Science Career was offered for credit through science 2DL3. The course was full of 30 students who developed the tools and skills needed to build careers that align with their interests.

Actuarial Career Test-Drive Program

Developed in collaboration with the Actuarial & Financial Mathematics (AFM) program, this initiative supported by Business + Higher Education Roundtable, we created 231 work-integrated learning opportunities and connected AFM students with industry professionals for career advice, guidance and networking. This program consisted of internships, industry projects, and case competitions. Students took part in case competitions where they worked in teams to solve authentic industry problems and then present their findings to employers.

35 years of co-op

We’re celebrating 35 years of science co-op success! This year, our first cohort of Kinesiology students joined the program. The addition of Kinesiology brings us to 14 co-op programs.