When I came into software engineering, I knew how to turn on a computer
and do a very effective Google search.
I'm Lorelei and I am a software engineering student here at TRU and I'm originally from Salmon Arm.
Starting through the engineering transfer program, transitioning into the Bachelor of Engineering and Software,
I started learning a lot more about computers, a lot more about software
and everything that was going on behind the scenes of everything we're doing.
The Bachelor of Software Engineering Program is an engineering program
where students study to become software engineers,
so they take a five year degree, including a co-op,
and they'll be eligible to become professional engineers at the end of that.
We're gaining a lot of the foundational skills that you would see in every other engineering program.
So we're learning about our physics, our math, our management, our economics,
and then we're topping that off with all of the technical knowledge, specifically in software.
So things like our engineering design projects relate to software
or coding or different types of web applications and things like that.
These programs really provide an option for students in the Interior to stay in the Interior, to go to school
where they're from, stay where they're from.
And it is a full co-op option, so they must take a co-op.
So we are also attaching them to employers in our region.
The co-op was fundamental in my learning process.
There are so many things that you cannot gain from a classroom
no matter how good your professors are or how good the curriculum is.
There are always those little tidbits that you get to learn
from the industry professionals and the different workspaces.
For my co-op work term, I actually ended up doing five with the same company in Salmon Arm, BC,
and that's Raptor Integration.
They're an industrial automation company that specializes in a sawmill automation.
So over my five terms there, I started out doing very basic
tasks relating to the different programs that we had and things like that, and
then as I progressed, I ended up mentoring new co-op students that were coming in.
I became a technical lead on one of our research and development projects,
and I was really able to grow as an employee and also as a student.
Not all engineering programs in Canada require a co-op.
A lot of the times they're optional, but our program does have it as mandatory,
which I think it gives our graduates a leg up when they graduate.
My favourite part of the program is actually
one of my favorite things about TRU, and that is the small class sizes
and professors that genuinely care about our learning.
All of my classes are relatively small. Even my largest class would be considered small.
Around 60 students, and the professors know you by name.
You could go to their office hours and get the help you needed.
And just having that relationship that you could build with all of your colleagues
as well as your professors was just an incredible experience.
The small class sizes give students direct access to their professors and direct access
to whatever clients or industry that they're working with on a one-on-one basis.
So students have so much more attention given to them. If they have any issues with anything
that they're doing in any of their courses or they have any questions,
those questions are automatically resolved directly by the professor.
They don't have to go through TA's. They don't have to talk to anybody else.
They have the experts talking to them about their issues
in their courses, and that is something very special about this program.
After graduation, I have signed a contract to go back with the company I did my co-op with.
So I'm going back to Salmon Arm, back to Raptor Integration,
and I will continue to work as an engineer in training and logging those experience
and hours towards becoming a professional engineer in software engineering.
I'm really proud of our graduating students. I know how hard that they worked to get to this point,
and I'm really excited that they're graduating and they're setting this precedents
and they're role models for our future engineering students.
I'm really excited to see what careers that they're going to have.
Being part of the first graduating class is an awesome experience to have.
We have really gotten to pioneer through the program and work
with the professors to help build this curriculum into what it is.
It's that constant feedback, that constant communication and conversation
about what do we want to learn? What are we actually learning?
How can we improve this going forward? And it's been a great experience.