Jason Graul and Ryan McCann are both graduates of Stratford Northwestern who took their grade 12 co-op at Strawbridge Machine & Tool. After working hard and impressing their employers they began an apprenticeship program through the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP). Jason and Ryan are now co-owners of Strawbridge because OYAP gave them the opportunity to continue their passion.

In 1997, Jason began his co-op at Strawbridge. As he began his co-op career, he proved to his employers that he was hard working and determined. While developing his techniques, Jason was offered a job at Strawbridge. Two years later, in 1999, Ryan McCann began his first co-op experience at Strawbridge. Ryan expressed the importance of math in the type of work he does. Ryan was never the best at math but when he began his co-op career at Strawbridge he finally understood the importance of math. He needed it to calculate the length of the tools and the size of the gears. Co-op gave him the opportunity to think outside the box, something that a math test could never do.

Jason and Ryan were both young students when starting their co-op careers and couldn't be more thankful how they ended up. Without co-op and OYAP, they wouldn't have had the opportunity.