Youth Entrepreneurship Placement Program student profile
Over the summer five Nipissing University students interested in innovation and entrepreneurship took part in a 16-week paid internship through the Innovation Initiatives Ontario North’s Youth Entrepreneurship Placement Program (YEPP)
Students were matched with local company for a guided journey that involves experiential and educational learning, similar to a mentorship. During the program, entrepreneurs share their business experiences and developments relating the practices back to business resiliency and survival.
NU News spoke to Nipissing alumna, Josephine Rocheleau (BBA’12), who worked atMetricAid, an Emergency Department (ED)physician scheduler that trims waiting time for patients and improves department efficiency. The award winning scheduling methodology is now in use at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Sault Area Hospital and in the Toronto area.
Rocheleau became aware of YEPP through MetricAid as she had initially applied for a position within the company. Themanagement team at MetricAid offered to stay in touch should another vacancy become available. Once the company had signed up with YEPP, they notified Rocheleau about the internship opportunity made possible through the program.
Rocheleau was eager to participate in the program because she wanted to find her organizational fit. Having previously taken advantage of an internship placement, Rocheleau knew that this opportunity would be extremely beneficial and would allow her to delve into her field of study, business administration majoring in marketing.
During her internship at MetricAid, Rocheleau was responsible for maintaining the company’s Customer Relations Management (CRM) system and social media accounts, as well as developing internal plans and polices to manage and monitor these processes.
“I have learned a great deal about the medial health industry and what it takes to manage a technology-based start-up company,” said Rocheleau. “Above all else, I learned the importance of teamwork and corporate culture, and gained the invaluable realizing that communication and recognition marks the difference between those teams, departments and companies that are effective and dysfunctional.”
Now that the 16-week program is complete, Rocheleau is staying with MetricAid.
“I’ve secured a permanent marketing role with MetricAid and plan on helping them tap into new markets, expand into hospitals across the county and North America, as well as eventually achieve global reach,” said Rocheleau. “I think YEPP is of great value to recent graduates and local entrepreneurs alike because of IION's attention to detail with regards to the matching process and the balance of educational and experiential learning that allowed the participants to grow personally and professionally throughout the 16 weeks.”
“The approach the program uses allowed me to apply my academic experience to a legitimate business setting, making direct and instant connections between the knowledge I was absorbing and the contribution I was making.”?