Rebekah Rajotte
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical)
Hinton, AB
I am from western Canada, in my 3rd year of Electrical Engineering. I choose Lakehead because of its small class size and teacher to student ratio. I knew that those two things were critical to my success in getting through Engineering. I also chose Lakehead because of its diploma program. As a mature student I didn’t know if I wanted to do my full degree in Engineering, but at the same time I wanted the option to continue on to complete it if I wanted too. I also knew that having a diploma would add to my education credentials. There is very limited financial support, other than student loans, when you’re a mature student so knowing that if you don’t complete the degree, either by choice or financial constraints, you have something when you finish your second year is a huge relief.
At first I wasn’t too keen on having to do the Common Year Applied Science because it just seemed to add time to my education process, but after competing it I was so glad I had done it. I would say that it is one of the contributors in my continued success. As a mature student, it had been awhile since I had done math at that level, especially without a calculator. It had also been a while since I had to sit in a class, take notes, do labs, do homework, etc. so it helped me get into the groove of school once again and by the time first year engineering came around, I was ready for the pace and scope of classes and knew how hard I would have to work to succeed at engineering.
There is two times that a professor has made an impact on me. The first was when I would go to get help after class with assignments for a particular professor and he would always give me the wrong answers. I would just blindly write them down then get a bad mark on my assignments. It infuriated me at the time but it taught me to try and get the answers myself not just look for an easy way out, and if I was stuck, to ask specific pointed questions not just ask for the answer. The second greatest impact a professor had made on me is how one professor’s hand writing is illegible. It might not seem like a big thing but if half of the class is spent asking what that word is or what that line says, it starts to become a big deal. You get home and you can’t even read your own notes or just huge swaths are missing because you couldn’t read the board. It use to drive me crazy but actually I have come to accept it and view it as working with a colleague that you might not always agree with but you have to work with in order to get projects done, so it has given me some real life experience.
Crazy as it sounds, I like the remoteness of Lakehead and Thunder Bay. It’s great because you don’t have the numerous distractions like you would if you lived in a big city. You know when something is happening, like a concert you want to see, and you also know when it’s quiet.
In Electrical Engineering, our professors really try to teach us that you can’t just memorize and regurgitate. You need to understand as much as you can about the problem, think outside the box and using the knowledge we have gained, solve it.