Saturday 28 March 2015

Entry 23: Final Career Decisions and the Final Month of Post Secondary Education

Since the starting of my final month in post secondary education, I have learned a lot about myself. For instance I have learned that taking Grand River Transit and getting to know the majority of the bus drivers and supervisors (who are really awesome and really good friends of mine now) and have supported myself throughout my last year at Conestoga College. I have also gained a lot more new friends from my program and they are also really awesome and good friends of mine now, but as we look at the final month of school, we all have our career path set out. Since starting in the Public Service program I have always looked at being a planner scheduler for Grand River Transit, I did apply and was hoping so greatly to get the position, but I got no call back. So since then, I have been looking at other cities and other transit systems like TTC, Mississauga, London, Guelph, GO transit and so on. I have applied but got no call back from them either. So, it was the past few weeks I have been thinking about what I could be doing as a career, and I final found what I want to do as a career.

For a career, I am looking at going to go drive for Grand River Transit as a bus operator. I have been told this since I was in high school and at Conestoga College as well as my one year at Laurier university. There are many great things I can do as being a bus operator for Grand River Transit, for instance, I know every route in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo so I have an advantage over the new drivers currently being trained and I also know the trainers at Grand River Transit, and the majority are driver friends so I know I will be trained by the best.

Personally, I cannot wait to go drive for Grand River Transit, ever since I was a little guy, I always loved watching buses, trucks and trains go by, now I am turning it into a career.

Until the next blog entry, have a wonderful Easter weekend and a great day folks! I hope to see you on the road behind the wheel of a Grand River Transit bus.

Sunday 1 March 2015

Entry 22: Last months of school

Hello everyone,

I have been doing my best to try and do a blog at least once a month but once co-op starts that might have to change. I do hope everyone enjoyed the month of February, although it was a very cold month, it seems like winter will finally let us warm up and prepare for spring. This blog will not be a very long blog, this is just an update blog.

Now without further interruptions I shall explained what has happened back in the month of February!

Student engagement at Conestoga College
As I have mentioned in previous blog entries I have been working with the Region of Waterloo on their strategic plan. The Region was mainly interested in hearing back from Conestoga College students at the Doon, Cambridge and Waterloo campuses. My team and I got lots of student feedback, both positive and areas for improvement that the region should be looking at.

Transit News
Since my last blog, I have studied more than just Grand River Transit in Waterloo Region, recently I have looked at London Transit, GO transit, TTC, Brantford Transit, and many more other systems. The most confusing system I have looked at has have to be the TTC. Compared to the other systems TTC has to be the most confusing maps I have ever looked at. On their website, TTC has divided their map into six sections to get others to understand their routes and what not. Even though I did download and study their routes individually (174 routes later) I had to use another website to understand the branches and what the routes interline with each other. GO transit is looking at doing a massive expansion throughout Ontario, areas do include Hamilton, Waterloo Region and other areas. From what I have seen in GO's strategic plan, Waterloo region is going to have at least three to six GO stations, two of the stations do include a station off of Highway 7 in Breslau and a station at Waterloo Region Airport.

Last two months of School
I still cannot believe that this will be my last year at Conestoga College. It feels like yesterday my class and I just started our program and now it's almost over. I do hope my class mates do keep in touch over the next years after we graduate, they have been such great people to work with, I wish them the best in their future careers.


That is all for this blog update, I wish everyone a safe evening, until the next blog.