Friday, November 17, 2017

Getting to know Preston and more

Things are starting to come together for the CUSP class as the term heads to a close. The students have spent the past few weeks learning the skills necessary to build a response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) from the City of Cambridge.
Bernhardt Block, Preston

On October 25, we had Eric Davis come in and speak to the students about the RFP and the process of adding buildings to a heritage register. He is a lawyer from Miller Thompson, LLP that specializes in municipal matters. He expressed that he thought this project was a huge undertaking for the students and gave them concrete advice on how best to streamline the process. Eric reminded the students to keep their audience in mind when presenting the information to ensure they have the most impact. The student came out with some valuable, real world knowledge on how to work best with municipalities.

In the November 1st class, the students had a workshop with Dana Lavoie, an Employment Equity and AODA Officer from the Laurier Diversity and Equity office. A requirement of the students deliverables this year are that the documents are Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) compliant. An example of what this entails is that the text of any documents prepared must be organized in a specific way so that devices like screen readers can access the document. The students not only learned this for their proposals and final deliverables, they also came out with a marketable skill for their CVs.