Graduating students share their advice and biggest FEAS takeaways
The FEAS graduates of 2021 have accomplished major feats, including graduating amid a pandemic. Graduates describe the sense of community they found within the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science (FEAS), sharing how they gained valuable experiences throughout their undergraduate studies. Engineering and architectural science students share their most significant takeaways and lessons, including how FEAS prepared them for their careers, the value of co-operative internships and their future plans.
Nicolas Tran, Civil Engineering (B.Eng ‘21)
Civil engineering alum Nicolas Tran’s advice to undergraduate students is to get involved in experiential learning. Nicolas completed his civil engineering degree from 2016 to 2021 with a 15-month co-operative internship at Ontario Power Generation. He said that experiential learning opportunities offered by FEAS allowed him to build soft and hard skills, meet new people and have the opportunity to explore his interests.
“It’s difficult to know where you want to end up when you first start university, and extracurriculars allowed me to try out different roles and hone in on my interests,” says Nicolas.
Throughout his five years at Ryerson, Nicolas had the opportunity to lead design teams like Concrete Toboggan, where his team took home 1st place overall over 23 other North American universities in 2019.
Now that he’s graduated, Nicolas is currently working towards his P.Eng license and continuing to put his best foot forward on every project, no matter the size. In the future, he plans to leverage innovative technologies in the engineering and construction industry to work more efficiently and safely.
Sai Poosarla, Aerospace Engineering, (B.Eng ‘21)
Aerospace engineering alum Sai Poosarla gained valuable experience throughout his time at Ryerson, including during his co-operative internship with Bombardier.
His advice to students is to focus on networking through friends and extracurricular activities and getting involved in student teams. Sai says the people you make connections with now might help you along your career path in the future.
“Remember that student teams also help with hands-on experience: Grades are important, but you can also stand out with your project and teamwork experience,” says Sai. “The resources and workshops that FEAS provided helped me focus on managing my work and time, especially with balancing school and student teams.”
Sai’s plans are to continue working on his student team, Helium Aero. He hopes to lead a team that realizes large-scale commercial drone applications one day, which he believes is the future.
Rija Khan, Architectural Science, (B.Arch ‘21)
Architectural Science alum Rija Khan says her main piece of advice is to network and make connections throughout your years in school. That means connecting to your classmates, professors, and even industry professionals that you may encounter during networking nights, your co-op, and other events where industry professionals would be present.
“I especially suggest making friends with people in your program--these will be the people that help you get through those long days and nights preparing for a project, and they’ll be your study buddies around exam season.”
Rija’s most significant FEAS experiences came from completing her co-operative internship.
“I was able to connect with people in the industry and learn on the job how it is to work at an architecture firm as compared to school.”
Rija was able to secure a full-time position as a Design Professional at HOK – the company for which she had previously completed her co-op as a student intern. She plans on returning to school for her master’s degree in Architectural Science.