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Employers reap rewards of hiring SFU co-op students
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Nancy Johnston, 604.291.3836, davidge@sfu.ca
Musharaf Sultan, 604.982.4140, Musharaf.Sultan@icbc.com
Jack Lee, 604.661.1202, Jack.Lee@icbc.com
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Nancy Johnston, 604.291.3836, davidge@sfu.ca
Musharaf Sultan, 604.982.4140, Musharaf.Sultan@icbc.com
Jack Lee, 604.661.1202, Jack.Lee@icbc.com
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
November 3, 2004
At the age of 20, Musharaf Sultan has made his mark in the corporate world. The Simon Fraser University student's supervisors and colleagues at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) not only respect him, but also consider him a major asset.
A fourth year computing science major, Sultan was hired in May 2004 by ICBC to help upgrade all of the corporation's personal computers from a Windows NT to a Windows XP operating environment. Sultan's supervisor, Jack Lee, is so pleased with the co-operative education (co-op) student's work that he extended Sultan's work term by four months in September. “As part of our computer application testing and support group, Musharaf was required to quickly learn and troubleshoot applications created by our in-house programmers and retail developers, such as Microsoft. Many of the applications, Musharaf had never been exposed to before,” explains Lee, team lead, desktop applications at ICBC. “Musharaf's ability to adapt has exceeded our expectations for co-ops.”
Sultan's exceptional performance does not surprise SFU co-op director Nancy Johnston. She notes that Sultan is among a growing number of co-op students who are proving to be just as much an asset to their employers as their employers are to their career preparation. “Many of our students are asked by their co-op employers to stay on for an extra term because their contribution has been so valuable,” observes Johnston. “We get several comments a semester from co-op employers praising the contributions of students to their company's advancement.”
Employers often give exceptional students higher responsibilities, normally reserved for more experienced, permanent employees. In Sultan's case, he eventually helped design and implement a reporting system that consolidates all the information in a multitude of hardware and software inventory systems at ICBC. Sultan is now helping to upgrade ICBC's print servers and design a tracking system to ensure all the corporation's software is up-to-date and properly licensed
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(electronic photo file available)
Websites: SFU co-op: www2.sfu.ca/coop/
A fourth year computing science major, Sultan was hired in May 2004 by ICBC to help upgrade all of the corporation's personal computers from a Windows NT to a Windows XP operating environment. Sultan's supervisor, Jack Lee, is so pleased with the co-operative education (co-op) student's work that he extended Sultan's work term by four months in September. “As part of our computer application testing and support group, Musharaf was required to quickly learn and troubleshoot applications created by our in-house programmers and retail developers, such as Microsoft. Many of the applications, Musharaf had never been exposed to before,” explains Lee, team lead, desktop applications at ICBC. “Musharaf's ability to adapt has exceeded our expectations for co-ops.”
Sultan's exceptional performance does not surprise SFU co-op director Nancy Johnston. She notes that Sultan is among a growing number of co-op students who are proving to be just as much an asset to their employers as their employers are to their career preparation. “Many of our students are asked by their co-op employers to stay on for an extra term because their contribution has been so valuable,” observes Johnston. “We get several comments a semester from co-op employers praising the contributions of students to their company's advancement.”
Employers often give exceptional students higher responsibilities, normally reserved for more experienced, permanent employees. In Sultan's case, he eventually helped design and implement a reporting system that consolidates all the information in a multitude of hardware and software inventory systems at ICBC. Sultan is now helping to upgrade ICBC's print servers and design a tracking system to ensure all the corporation's software is up-to-date and properly licensed
-30-
(electronic photo file available)
Websites: SFU co-op: www2.sfu.ca/coop/