Students

Arizona State University, one of the largest universities in the United States, has a well-earned reputation as an innovator. Thus, it was no surprise that when the university decided to grow its work-based learning initiatives in 2020, it naturally turned to Riipen. As North America’s largest work-based learning marketplace and a leader in the field of educational technology, Riipen was in a unique position to help the university provide real work opportunities for its students. To date, over 100 ASU courses have used Riipen to deliver more than 9,000 student experiences across 500+ real employer projects. 

July 26, 2022 – Vancouver, BC – In light of the changing nature of work and challenges around sourcing talent, Riipen’s Level UP program has expanded to support 18,000 new fully subsidized, remote paid internships for small and mid-sized companies over the next two years.

“We are here to enable every Riipeneer to do their best work.” If we had to sum up what Riipen’s People & Culture team is all about in one phrase, this would be it. It’s the thing we keep this top of mind when shaping the moments that matter in the Riipeneer journey. We strive to craft employee experiences where our team members feel a sense of belonging, support, and appreciation. Onboarding is no exception. 

More than 100 postsecondary students from schools across Manitoba took part in the Sprint to Innovate: The Innovation Challenge hackathon presented by the City of Winnipeg and hosted by Riipen partner Red River College Polytechnic (RRC Polytech). Over the span of 3 days, students from varied disciplines such as technology, business, entrepreneurship, worked in teams of 4 to 6, to tackle a business challenge provided by industry partners. Under the guidance of their mentors and in collaboration with their employer-partner, the student teams worked together on a solution to the proposed challenge, including developing a prototype which they presented to judges on the final day.

Accelerate Her Future (AHF) is a career accelerator providing tailored programs for self-identifying Black, Indigenous and racialized women to launch their careers in business and STEM while building networks of solidarity and action. Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi, Founder and President of AHF, began working with Riipen in the Summer of 2021, submitting a number of different projects to the Level UP remote internship program. She was able to partner with five students who worked on projects focusing on digital marketing, research and analysis, establishing an ambassador program and onboarding.

Riipen has experienced incredible growth over the last few years, and that has presented us with the opportunity to reimagine what we wanted community giving at Riipen to look like. Up until 2021 we had made several charitable donations to causes we cared about, but we knew we could contribute more meaningfully with a structured program and team in place.

A new round of Federal Government funding for the Level UP program will support 18,000 new fully-subsidized remote paid internships for Canadian post-secondary learners and employers over the next two years.

In 2021, after building a strong foundation for many of our people processes, we began to explore how we could approach Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Riipen more intentionally and company-wide.

In the summer of 2021, The @ Company (The At Company) partnered with Riipen to deliver a number of highly successful internships. The students that participated in these internship programs built three mobile applications, two that are preparing to launch and one that is already available on the Apple App Store. We sat down with The @ Company team to explore how their internship programs have evolved over time and their approach to working with students.