Fleming College

While many students leave the nest for college, Wireless Information Networking student Hannah Le moved to a new country for her studies. Raised in Vietnam, Hannah booked a flight to Canada to learn electronics, telecommunication and programming at Fleming College.

She describes Peterborough, Ont., as a peaceful, quiet city and appreciates the design of the Sutherland Campus building.

“I have had a wonderful experience at Fleming. My classes were so great with lots of excellent teachers, who were not only enthusiastic in class or lab but also gave timely responses to my email questions with very useful information,” said Hannah. “Fleming also had many activities inside and outside the campus, which gave me good chances to meet, communicate and connect with other students.”

The Wireless Information Networking graduate certificate focuses on the design, planning, implementation, operation and troubleshooting of wireless networks. For hands-on, real world experience, Hannah also completed a Field Placement at Genpak, a food packaging company.

“When I searched on the Internet about Genpak and knew that it has many plants in both the US and Canada, I thought this would be a great chance to see how this company handles their business,” she said. “Besides, I can still stay in Peterborough and meet my friends, while exploring the real workplace environment and working culture of the company.”

Hannah describes her colleagues at Genpak as nice, helpful, kind, supportive and encouraging. She said Field Placement has improved her communication skills, programming VBA skills, problem-solving, time management, and productivity. She added that Field Placement and Fleming College has also taught her a lot about Canadian culture.

“Field Placement is a great opportunity to gain experience in the real work environment. In the real world, not everything will be set up and fixed, so you have to face a lot more challenging problems and find the solutions to them,” said Hannah. “Field Placement helps me connect and apply what I have learned to the particular situations and develop my skills.”

Jennifer Seeley, Quality Assurance & Food Safety Coordinator at Genpak, was impressed with Hannah’s work.

“Hannah is one of those students that it just clicks with,” said Jennifer. “She took the placement very seriously in terms of her attendance, promptness and focus. She brought a lot of new ideas (to us) to the table with a number of the small projects that she worked on. Her friendly and curious outlook encouraged us to work a little deeper on some things, so that she could see and understand how things worked and why.”

Hannah had the opportunity to work in four different departments at Genpak: I.T., Engineering, Materials/Inventory, and Quality/Regulatory. Each supervisor was happy with Hannah’s work, writing in their feedback that she is:

• “very knowledgeable and puts that knowledge to work in not only solving issues, but also learning” – I.T.
• “always focused on her work and was great at noticing small details that needed attention” – Engineering
• “pleasure to work with and eager to help” – Materials/Inventory
• “we all benefitted from her help. She grasped concepts quickly, not only worked well independently but thought about what she was working on and could make valuable suggestions along the way. Hannah is definitely someone who can go far in her field” – Quality/Regulatory.

Fleming College offers many programs that feature Field Placement opportunities. Hannah’s advice to other students who want to excel on placement is to be confident, punctual and respectful, follow the responsibilities given in the Field Placement offer and be prepared, work hard and take it seriously, and do not hesitate to ask your teacher or supervisor for help.