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“Cowater offers room to grow and succeed as a young professional” News

2 April, 2019

This is Alaine Spiwak. She is a Junior Project Officer at Cowater and has been awarded the Carleton University Graduate Co-op Student of the Year 2018. The award is granted to a co-op student whose performance has exceeded expectations and had a positive impact on their work environment.

From Hamilton, Ontario, Alaine is completing her master’s in project management and humanitarian assistance at the Norman Paterson Schools of International Affairs at Carleton University. As part of her curriculum, she completed a co-op program in the Summer and Fall 2018 semesters as a Junior Project Officer with our Public Financial Management and Accountability (PFMA) Team.

During her time as a Junior Project Officer, Alaine helped the team develop project proposals through drafting technical sections, conducting research, identifying and recruiting consultants, and ensuring quality controls. “Alaine has proven highly capable of working in a team environment and has contributed to the cohesiveness of the team,” said Cory Leblanc, PFMA Vice President. “We work in what is often a high stress environment and the importance of collaborative approaches, professionalism and high performance under significant pressure cannot be understated.”

When Alaine finishes her studies in June 2019, she will become a permanent employee of Cowater and work on projects that she helped her team win, such as a £28M (CAD 47M) DFID project in Ethiopia on tax system modernisation. She is excited to start her new role and continue working with her team: “I had such a great co-op experience with the PFMA team. They have always been very supportive, and I am grateful for it,” shared Alaine. “I think Cowater offers room to grow and succeed as a young professional. Especially as a young woman, it is inspiring to find so many female role models in the company.”

Alaine won’t be starting her new role immediately though; to celebrate her new job offer and the end of her master’s, she is travelling for three weeks on a much-deserved holiday to Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong!

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