Crooks Work-Integrated Learning Program in Liberal Education
Crooks Work-Integrated Learning Program in Liberal Education
The University of Lethbridge is committed to providing students practical hands-on experiences to develop their professional skills and better prepare them to enter the work world after graduation.
The Crooks Work-Integrated Learning Program in Liberal Education helps make that possible by providing paid internships for up to five students per year to work on research, teaching or community projects.
Thanks to a generous endowment from Art Crooks and family, the Crooks Work-Integrated Learning Program in Liberal Education supports opportunities for students to analyze and apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom in a more applied setting.
Applications for summer internships will be opening soon!
Are you a community organization with a project you think would qualify? Please submit an Expression of Interest including an outline of the project, a brief job description with any necessary skills and job expectations, as well as an indication of how both your organization and the student intern would benefit from this opportunity. Submissions should be sent by email to Jackie Geneau, School of Liberal Education at ULethbridge, email jackie.geneau@uleth.ca by March 21, 2025. Projects will be reviewed, and suitable opportunities will then be promoted to students.
Frequently Asked Questions
Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada (CEWIL Canada) is the lead organization for work-integrated learning (WIL) in Canada. It defines work-integrated learning as “a form of curricular experiential education that formally integrates a student’s academic studies with quality experiences within a workplace or practice setting. WIL experiences include an engaged partnership of at least: an academic institution, a host organization, and a student. WIL can occur at the course or program level and includes the development of student learning objectives and outcomes related to: employability, agency, knowledge and skill mobility and life-long learning.”
CEWIL defines 8 different types of WIL experiences. The Crooks WIL Program in Liberal Education falls under Community and Industry Research & Projects, meaning students are engaged in research that occurs primarily in workplaces.
Undergraduate students from any discipline at the University of Lethbridge are welcome to apply.
Community organizations are invited to submit projects for consideration, with priority given to learning opportunities for projects in business and the non-profit sector. Submissions are reviewed by the Crooks Work-Integrated Learning Steering Committee who will then work with student applicants to find an opportunity that matches their desired learning outcomes.
Students are welcome to submit their own projects for consideration along with their internship application.
The School of Liberal Education will oversee the program in collaboration with the University’s Career Bridge centre.
Suitable projects will be eligible for independent or applied study credit or co-op designation and can be full- or part-time. To learn more about these opportunities, visit Career Bridge.
About the donors
Today, more than ever, it is essential that graduates have skills and experience to go along with their classroom learning. We are pleased to be able to support this innovative and integrated approach.
Art Crooks
Art Crooks attended Amherst College in Massachusetts and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1961. He pursued a Masters of Business Administration at the then-University of Western Ontario, now Western University. Following graduation, Art took a job in sales and quickly rose through the ranks to become a regional and then national sales manager.
Mary Jane Crooks, although she was accepted at McGill University, chose to pursue a career in advertising. She started at Eaton’s in Toronto and later worked with advertising agencies, where she won a copywriting award for her series on the carousel slide projector.
In 1971 when he was 30, Art interviewed for a Canadian Tire franchise and was approved to purchase his first store in Blenheim, Ont. As the couple worked to establish the business, Art and Mary Jane did the jobs of three people to save money on a salary. While Art placed orders, worked at the parts counter, unloaded trucks and stocked the store, Mary Jane did the books. Profits were modest in the beginning, but they persisted. A year later, they purchased the Pembroke store in the Ottawa Valley and, in 1979, they jumped at the chance to open the first store in Lethbridge. The business succeeded and grew, as did their family of three children. In recent years, Art and Mary Jane have turned their focus to giving back to the community that provided so much to them and their family over the last 40 years.