A lot of students can be hesitant to do co-op. Maybe it’s the costly fees that are preventing you from signing up, or maybe your friend had a really bad placement. I had a lot of the same fears before I registered for co-op at Simon Fraser University. But since enrolling as a co-op student, I’ve had the opportunity to attend invaluable workshops and been given access to jobs that I could never have found on my own.

If you are like me, you probably have a lot of causes that are near and dear to you. You might have pursued international development with hopes of giving back to the world, only to be dissuaded by the harsh realities that are exposed by this academic field.

Evan Mitchell Beck was a 3rd year political science and psychology student at Queens university when he participated in the Semester in Development in Uganda.