Those are the words of Lorna's supervisor, Bryan Harris, at the City of St. John's, where she spent her final work term. And, because of her outstanding performance, Lorna was recently honoured at the annual co-operative education awards with a Director's Award for Exemplary Performance for her work as the employee health and wellness educator.

Lorna, who is graduating in May with a bachelor of kinesiology (co-op), was responsible for developing staff health and wellness programs, conducting employee health assessments and providing one-on-one guidance to employees, as well as researching and writing reports for the City.

"I really enjoyed that the work term was very practical. You go to class and you learn all this information, but until you apply it you never really know what you've learned. This work term really allowed me the opportunity to share what I know and validate that I have indeed learned a lot over the past four years."

Mr. Harris also described Lorna as an outstanding employee who is a perfect fit for this profession. "Lorna's outgoing and energetic personality enabled her to develop excellent relationships with the cities' employees that resulted in many of them setting and reaching their personal wellness goals," noted Mr. Harris.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my last work term, but never did I think that my work was worthy of such recognition," said Lorna. "I feel very proud of myself to be honored with such an award. It's great to know that working hard does pay off. I always put my best into everything I do, but never did I expect to be awarded for it." Lorna also had big praise for the co-op coordinators in HKR. "They are always there and will help you through any issue big or small. They truly make the co-op program so great and ensure that students receive the best experiences possible."

In 2006, the director of Co-operative Education initiated an award recognizing senior co-operative education students who have demonstrated outstanding work term performances. Four co-op students, one from each of the Engineering, Business, Human Kinetics and Recreation programs, and one award for one of the Co-operative Education programs in the Arts and Science portfolio, are selected to receive the Director's Award for an Exemplary Work Term in Co-operative Education. The awards are presented annually during National Co-operative Education Week. In addition, the student award recipients' work term employers from the previous calendar year are awarded an Employer's Awards for Exemplary Learning Opportunity for the contribution they make to co-operative education at Memorial.