Tales of a Teacher: Laura Johnson

by Sophie Twardus. This is the second of three Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Stories that will run in the Daily Bulletin this week.

Helping students transfer knowledge gained in the classroom to the contemporary workplace is a challenge faced by many instructors. Too often university courses are taught in a vacuum, with content estranged from its real-world application. This challenge is especially acute in a domain like urban planning where workplace decisions can be shaped by input from a wide variety of third-party interest groups. The question is how to help students experience those "messy" real world scenarios.

Enter Dr. Laura Johnson, an instructor in Waterloo’s School of Planning for fifteen years. Johnson strives to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world by providing her students with case studies, organizing field trips to innovative planning sites, and inviting planning professionals as guest speakers. Additionally, to provoke thinking about some of the choices that planners face, Johnson has her students in PLAN 233 (People and Plans) participate in a “charrette” – that is, an intensive design workshop in which participants are presented with a specific design problem, and then work toward a solution under a tight deadline.

In the charrette, Johnson’s 90 students were presented with a scenario pertaining to the redevelopment of an imaginary waterfront neighbourhood in a community located west of downtown Toronto. Students were asked to join one of six interest groups including developers, tenants, homeowners, local business interests, local landlords and environmentalists. The groups were asked to develop proposals which were presented to half a dozen planners (also role-played by students) in a plenary meeting.

The charrette was an excellent simulation of urban planning. The exercise allowed students to better empathize with the perspectives of developers, conservationists, and residents. It exposed the students to a situation that is time-sensitive, team-oriented, and requires precise articulation of their point of view to an audience that is not necessarily sympathetic to it. Overall, the charrette exercise was intended to teach students to consider and evaluate multiple perspectives in answering tough urban planning problems.

The reaction to Johnson’s efforts to enrich her course with the hands-on experience of the charrette was overwhelmingly positive: in course evaluations, students indicated that they enjoyed the charrette experience and learned much about participatory planning through the activity. Cyrus Yan, a Teaching Assistant for the course, also reported that the charrette was "a fresh, new experience for the students and it was clear that they took much more away by participating in the exercise than they would have had they merely listened to us describe what a charrette was and how it worked."

The design charrette is now an official part of the PLAN 233 curriculum.

 

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Wishabi work culture

 

In 2007, a group of Waterloo engineering alumni founded Wishabi (www.wishabi.com), a company that’s transforming the shopping experience by the way that flyers are created and distributed.

Today companies such as Walmart and Target can be found on the Wishabi platform which brings the retailer’s flyer content to life through the introduction of digital and dynamic content. These flyers are then introduced to consumers in more engaging ways – such as through their money-saving new app called Flipp (www.flipp.com).

One of the co-founders, David Au-Yeung (pictured above), recently had the chance to touch base with us at Co-operative Education & Career Action to describe how co-op helped to direct his path towards entrepreneurial endeavours, and to outline why Wishabi is growing and succeeding at such a phenomenal rate.

“Waterloo co-op allows young people to explore what they are really passionate about,” says Au-Yeung. “For myself, I worked at bigger companies and also high-growth, high-potential startups during co-op. After my work terms, I was very clear about what I wanted to do post-graduation: join a startup and eventually start a company with my friends. Our ideas always focused on reinvention as we were never happy with the status quo.”

Co-op opened Au-Yeung’s eyes to the opportunities available to people who have the desire to pursue their own path. Au-Yeung’s courage certainly paid off – Wishabi grew from four friends to 100 employees, and is expected to take on another 50 team members in the next six months!

The recipe for startup success

According to Au-Yeung, the core of Wishabi’s success links back to their company culture, which revolves around key principles including an entrepreneurial spirit and a team-centred approach.

“At Wishabi, people care about more than their own personal growth – they care about the larger team. Everything we do here is team based and it’s this mentality that drives the company’s success,” says Au-Yeung. “The entrepreneurial spirit is also an important part of the Wishabi culture. Our people have the drive to take ownership over the company’s success, rather than just looking out for their own individual roles.”

As chief people officer (as well as managing director of engineering), one of Au-Yeung’s many tasks is to ensure that new recruits share the company’s core principles.

These core principles, which translate into the unique corporate culture at Wishabi, evolve out of the foundation of the relationships between the founding members of the company.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today, if it wasn’t for the relationships that we built at Waterloo,” says Au-Yeung.

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Recognizing recent retirees

Human Resources has announced the retirements of a number of staff members, effective August 1, 2014:

• Lori Gove, Director, Principal Gifts in the Office of Advancement, who started at Waterloo in August 2003;
• Carmen Roecker; Editor, Undergraduate Calendar and Manager, Communications in the Registrar's Office, who started working at the University in December 1970;
• Paul Hayes, Lab Instructor/Co-ordinator in Electrical and Computer Engineering, who began working at Waterloo in January 1981;
• Joanne Kursikowski; who started at Waterloo in October 1987 and retired as Co-ordinator of Operations in the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computers (CEMC);
• Neil Stewart, Maintenance Supervisor in Plant Operations, who began working at the University in July 1985;
• Frances Kirk, who started at Waterloo in October 1981, and retired as Lead Hand Bindery in Retail Services;
• Deborah Mustin, Administrative Co-ordinator, David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, who started in June 1976;
• Nell Peters, Venipuncture Technician, Health Services, who started working at the University in September 1984;
• Maria Liko, who began working at the University in March 1990, and retired as Custodian, Plant Operations; and
• Maryann Gavin, who started working at Waterloo in March 1978 and retired as
  Senior Director, Advancement Services in the Office of Advancement.

As well, Human Resources has announced the retirement of a number of faculty members, effective June 1, 2014:

• Professor John Flanagan, who started in October 1985 as Assistant Professor in the School of Optometry, became Associate Professor in July 1990 and received tenure, and became full professor in July 1996.

Effective July 1, 2014:

• Professor Joel Greenberg, who started at Waterloo in July 1990 as associate professor (after spending 18 months as artist-in-residence), received tenure in July 1991 and was appointed chair of the drama department, and retired as Professor, Drama and Speech Communication; and
• Professor Tom Edwards, who started working at Waterloo in July 1988 as assistant professor, and retired as Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Effective August 1, 2014:

• Professor Andre Roy, who started in September 2011 as Dean of Environment as well as a tenured full professor in Geography and Environmental Management.

 

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