Web Developer/Designer Co-op
Thompson Rivers University — Marketing & Communications
May 2026 – August 2026 · Kamloops, BC
My co-op with Thompson Rivers University’s Marketing & Communications team gave me the opportunity to work directly on the university’s web environment and contribute to real production websites used by students, faculty, staff, and the public.
The role combined web development, content management, troubleshooting, modernization, and client-facing work. Rather than working on a single isolated project, I contributed to a wide range of web requests while also taking ownership of larger development and site-improvement initiatives.
What I Worked On
University Web Development
I worked extensively within TRU’s university-wide content management system, using ACM to create and maintain webpages, templates, pagelets, and digital assets.
My work included:
- Building and updating webpages
- Working with templates and reusable page components
- Managing images, videos, PDFs, and other web assets
- Publishing and maintaining active content
- Archiving outdated or unnecessary pages
- Supporting the complete workflow from development through publication
- Working with files on the live web environment through WinSCP
This gave me experience working within an established production system where changes needed to integrate cleanly with existing university websites and standards.
jQuery Modernization
One of my larger technical assignments involved supporting the migration of legacy university webpages from older versions of jQuery 1.x to jQuery 3.7.x.
Using jQuery Migrate and browser development tools, I investigated deprecated functionality, identified compatibility problems, documented legacy breakpoints, and updated JavaScript where required.
The project involved more than simply replacing a library version. Existing pages relied on years of accumulated scripts and behaviours, so changes needed to be tested carefully to avoid breaking functionality elsewhere.
This work strengthened my ability to:
- Debug existing JavaScript rather than only writing new code
- Understand unfamiliar legacy code
- Investigate browser errors and warnings
- Test changes incrementally
- Document technical issues for future maintenance
Web Requests & Stakeholder Collaboration
Throughout the co-op, I worked on 50+ web requests originating from different areas of the university.
Requests ranged from small content changes to larger structural and design updates. This required communicating with requestors, understanding what they were trying to accomplish, translating those needs into web changes, and following up when requirements needed clarification.
Working in this environment taught me that web development is often as much about understanding the problem correctly as it is about implementing the solution.
Faculty of Law Website Revamp
One of the largest individual pieces of work during my co-op was a substantial update to the TRU Faculty of Law website.
The project extended over approximately six weeks and involved multiple rounds of meetings, implementation, review, and revision.
I worked through evolving requirements while updating the site structure and content, responding to feedback, and refining the result across multiple iterations.
The project gave me experience with a longer development cycle where the final result emerged through collaboration rather than from a fixed set of requirements given at the beginning.
Technologies & Tools
HTML · CSS · JavaScript · jQuery · ACM CMS · WinSCP · Browser Developer Tools
I also worked extensively with existing web templates, reusable components, responsive layouts, accessibility-conscious content, and production website maintenance.
What I Took From the Experience
The most valuable part of the co-op was learning what development looks like inside a large, established organization.
I became more comfortable working with systems I did not design, reading and modifying existing code, investigating unexpected behaviour, and making changes without disrupting other parts of a website.
The role also reinforced the importance of maintainability, communication, documentation, and incremental improvement. A technically correct solution still needs to work within the surrounding system and make sense to the people who will maintain it after you.
The experience gave me a much stronger understanding of the full lifecycle of web work—from receiving a request and understanding the requirement, through development and testing, to revision and publication.