Never back down from your goals just because they are challenging; true growth comes from perseverance.
- Degree: Bachelor of Applied Science
- Grad year: 2025
- Program:
- Campus: Okanagan
The first day of university I walked into the class filled with anxiety, excitement, and uncertainty as I took the first steps toward my second career as a civil engineer. I would have laughed if you had told me just a year prior that I would be studying engineering. In high school and until my early twenties, I always thought that STEM wasn't for me. I was convinced I was not good at math and science. Instead, I decided that I would become a chef.
A month before turning eighteen, I moved to Toronto, a big city full of freedom and opportunity compared to my small hometown in Northern Ontario. To convince my mother to let me move, I enrolled in culinary school at George Brown College. Although I would not have admitted it then, my mother was right; going to college provided me with opportunities I would not have had otherwise. I worked and studied full-time for two years, motivated to achieve my goals. I excelled in the fast-paced, intense environment of professional kitchens, working my way up to running a station in one of the top restaurants in Canada in under three years. Even though I had a promising career ahead of me that I loved, I felt something was missing. That is when I decided to try something new. I researched countless career paths, everything from interior design to urban planning to food science, but I kept coming back to engineering.
Looking back, it is surprising that it was not my first choice. I come from a family of technologists and engineers. Still, for the first year of my degree, I was terrified.
Despite the strong female role models in my life, I never felt like the kind of person that could succeed as an engineer. Spoiler: I was wrong.
I finished my degree in civil engineering at the top of my class. I started and led student design teams for international competitions, published four research papers and travelled to conferences globally, and participated in the Co-op program, which allowed me to work in the industry while completing my degree.
My path to becoming an engineering student was unconventional. What I hope you take away from my story is that it's okay to be unsure of what you want to do and to change your mind. What is important, is that you are working towards a goal and considering how your decisions impact your future self.
How are you applying the skills you learned through your studies at UBCO?
My time at UBCO has helped me grow academically, professionally, and personally, which I attribute to my involvement on campus. Balancing the demanding engineering curriculum with research, design team leadership, internships, volunteering, and engineering outreach is challenging, but these opportunities shaped my professional and personal growth.
For the first few years of university, I struggled with imposter syndrome. My fear of failure pushed me to develop skills that would help me land a job after graduation. Over time, my fear faded, replaced with an unwavering confidence and sense of community that drives me to this day. Overall, by getting involved on campus I learned to embrace challenges, because true growth comes from perseverance.
What has made your time at UBCO memorable?
My most memorable experiences at UBCO are from my involvement with the School of Engineering design team, Innovate, Design, Sustain (IDS) and participating in an international competition to design high-performance buildings powered by renewables, BuildingNext (formerly Solar Decathlon Design Challenge). In the summer of 2022, I founded the first joint UBCO and Thompson Rivers University (TRU) competition team as part of IDS. Within the first month over 75 students joined the team, highlighting the need for multi-disciplinary, sustainability-focused student projects at UBCO. That year, I led the inaugural team to place second for our design of a fire-resistant and energy-efficient house in Lytton, BC, a town devastated by a wildfire in 2021.
Now, in the third year of the team, we have built a strong network of industry partners, including companies with close ties to UBCO, like RJC Engineers, Smith + Andersen, the City of Kelowna and Chandos Construction, plus new partnerships, like Kuby Energy, Techno Metal Post, and Kon Cast. Not only have these partnerships resulted in job offers for several team members but they have also given the students opportunities to teach practicing engineers and architects about innovative sustainable building practices.
Our inaugural design for Lytton motivated a competition judge to install fire-resilient self-closing vent covers on every home his company, Thrive Home Builders in Colorado, has built since. This made hundreds of houses across the United States more resilient and shows the material impact that students can have on the world when they work together and strive for something greater.
In 2024, I led over 40 students to design a fire-smart, low-carbon modular house for Honour Ranch, a non-profit that provides mental health treatment for veterans and first responders. This initiative, motivated by the McDougall Creek Fire and the worsening climate and housing affordability crises in our region, aimed to served as a template for future development in the Thompson-Okanagan.
The modular home at Honour Ranch would have housed two live-in caretakers, helping expand their essential mental health programs. To ensure real community impact, we collaborated with research clusters, faculty advisors, and seven industry partners. Our team achieved second place internationally at the 2023/24 Solar Decathlon competition. I then led fundraising efforts, raising $150,000 for the build. We also partnered with the TRU Trades Faculty, developing a new program to teach innovative sustainable and modular construction.
Despite the project's late 2024 cancelling due to Honour Ranch's internal restructuring, it provided the 40+ team members significant opportunities for shared learning and professional skills development, and global representation for UBC Okanagan.
What advice would you give a student entering the School of Engineering?
My path to becoming an engineering student was unconventional. What I hope people take away from my story is that it's okay to be unsure of what you want to do and to change your mind. What is important is that you are working towards a goal and considering how your decisions impact your future self.
Originally, my decision to study engineering was partially motivated by not wanting to pursue graduate studies. Nonetheless, I intentionally took steps early in my degree to keep my options open, like getting involved in research and prioritizing my grades. When I later decided to pursue a PhD, this was an asset to me, allowing me to choose a project, supervisor, and university that aligned with my short and long-term goals.
The advice I would offer a student pursuing engineering, or any other degree, is to work hard to create opportunities for yourself and not let anything stop you from achieving your goals, even your self-doubt.
What is next for you?
In September, I will begin a PhD in structural engineering at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where I will analyze the trade-offs between embodied carbon reductions and earthquake resilience in concrete buildings. This work is motivated by recent code changes and a recently improved understanding of the region's earthquake risk.
When I have the time, I hope to continue with a research project I started while at UBCO, which focuses on developing a novel seismic damping device that dissipates energy during earthquakes, protecting buildings and the people in them. Afterwards, I plan to work in a consulting firm where I can utilize my expertise to design innovative, efficient, and safe structures worldwide.
My ultimate goal is to help improve building codes to have a broad and lasting positive impact on resilience and sustainability in the built environment.
