Every year we hire students and new graduates through our Campus & Early Talent Program, which is designed to empower them with the skills, experiences, and mentorship needed to launch successful careers. 

This program has become a pivotal launching pad for emerging professionals across a wide range of disciplines, including finance, IT, engineering and digital communications. So far in 2025, the program has welcomed over 100 individuals, with more than half being co-op students. For many of the participants in our co-op program, this is an opportunity to gain professional experience in their field of studies.  

That’s certainly true for Laura Lushaj, a civil engineering student at the University of Toronto who always knew her path would lead to transportation. “I have a niche interest in transportation planning and transportation engineering,” Laura shared. Having just finished her third year, she was drawn to Metrolinx through her experience taking public transit from Hamilton to campus. “I could see all of the issues and all the items that [Metrolinx] has been fixing throughout the years,” said Laura. “As an engineer that really inspired me to work for this company and contribute to that process.” 

Simulating the future of rail 

As a Rail Simulation Co-op, Laura’s role involves modeling and simulating rail network utilization scenarios. Her work supports service planning for infrastructure expansion and major events like Toronto Caribbean Carnival.  

“All of these large events take weeks of planning,” Laura explained. Using specialized software, Laura’s work helps the service design team forecast operational needs, such as determining when additional trains are required to manage crowds leaving venues like Rogers Stadium. She also analyzes the potential for impact and helps optimize track times to avoid collisions or deadlock. 

Engineering transit solutions 

Another co-op student that joined us this summer is Bus Fleet Engineering Co-op Leo Paternostro, an engineering student at Toronto Metropolitan University specializing in mechatronics. In this role, Leo has taken the lead on the security footage distribution system for GO Transit’s bus fleet. “When someone requests footage from a specific time frame, I will extract it from the bus myself,” he explained.  

This type of footage plays a vital role in the team’s core responsibility: investigating bus breakdowns. Whenever a bus breaks down, it’s Leo’s team that collects data to confirm the issues involved. “What we do is a lot of interpretation,” he said. “Investigating what happened and [figuring out] how to improve the mechanical systems for the future.” 

According to Leo, this involves data collection, talking to the people involved in the issue, looking at video footage and more, all done with the aim of getting to the root of the issue.  

Hands-on learning, real-world impact 

For Laura, her time at Metrolinx has provided her the opportunity to apply her studies to real life applications. “This job specifically, when it was introduced to me, catered towards the subjects I’ve studied in school, but there’s also a lot of new software that I’ve learned here,” she said.  

The same goes for Leo, who enjoyed the opportunity to spend time in a working garage. “I feel like being exposed to a hands-on workplace has been huge for me as an engineer,” he said. About to enter his third year of studies, Leo found that his co-op experience has provided him a different perception of what he’s studying in school. “Seeing my studies applied in the workforce has given me a new perspective on my topics of study and leaves me with an optimistic outlook on my post-graduate opportunities,” he said.