See the following letter from Madison Sameshima, who was a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) participant at Lakehead. This past summer she was hired as an intern at Riipen.  They have now hired her full-time at their head office.

During my undergrad in 2017, I was grateful to have taken part in the RBC Work Integrated Learning (WIL) pilot program at Lakehead University where I was able to work at Sleeping Giant Brewery directly with company co-owner, Matt Pearson.

In addition to this experience, the WIL program also included valuable workshops such as personal branding and team building. The skills and knowledge I acquired were a springboard leading to my subsequent work placements: an HR co-op placement at Tigercat Industries in 2018, an HR placement in Lakehead’s HR Department in 2018-19, and an HR internship at Riipen in the summer of 2020.

My experiential learning opportunities really shaped where I am today. I’ve now come full circle and am working in my first full-time position post-graduation at Riipen Networks in Vancouver as a People and Culture Coordinator. Riipen is an innovative education technology company on a mission to eliminate graduate underemployment by reducing the skills gap for those about to enter or re-enter the workforce.

My RBC WIL experience provided opportunities to learn the skills, acquire the experience, and build the network I needed post-graduation to help me clearly define my career path.

I was thoroughly inspired by the program supported by RBC Future Launch with its goal of better preparing youth for the workforce, and I’m excited to be able to contribute to these same goals through my work at Riipen.

Visit this Riipen news release for more information.

Madison Sameshima, right, with her mom, Lakehead professor Pauline Sameshima from the Faculty of Education.