March 11, 2022
Meet Justine Archer!
Hello! I’m Justine, and I’m in the Management Engineering program’s class of 2023. I’ve just finished my 3B term, and I’m currently doing my co-op on Questrade’s product management team to help deliver their new mortgage solutions. Outside of school, I love to run; I was a varsity track sprinter in my first couple of years at UW. I also love travelling (I’m going to Mexico and NYC this winter term!), reading novels and taking care of my plants. Recently, I’ve also picked up my first instrument - the ukulele!
What factors led you to choosing your current program?
Several factors led me to pick management engineering at the University of Waterloo. The three main reasons are the schools’ extensive co-op opportunities, the uniqueness of my program, and the fact that my skillset matched with program requirements. I found the co-op to be extremely appealing, as it would allow me to explore six different roles and have two years worth of work experience upon graduating. Not only would I be employable, but I would have an idea of the type of company and work that I would like to do beyond graduation. In addition, management engineering is the only undergraduate program like it in Canada, which really appealed to me. It appeared to be the perfect balance of optimization, software, and business, which I can attest to being true given my experiences thus far. Finally, my strengths in high school aligned well with the program; I always enjoyed the logical problem solving that came from maths and physics courses, but was also a strong analytical communicator, as English was one of my strongest subjects.
Why did you become a student ambassador?
In short, I wanted to be an engineering ambassador to get involved in the school community. In my first year, I was an ambassador for my university college residence, St. Jerome’s University, and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to continue my involvement with the school but with respect to my program. Since management engineering is an extremely cool yet unheard of program for many, I wanted the chance to be able to tell people about it at open houses and through EngChats (1:1 virtual meetings with current and future students). Finally, the engineering ambassador team has been a great way to stay connected with UW’s existing and prospective engineering community while working and studying remotely.
What is your favourite Waterloo memory?
I have many great school memories, but there is one day that always sticks out to me! Fall 2018 was the start of my second year on the varsity track team. The first meet of the season happened to be on my own and another teammate’s birthday, so I had the chance to spend the entire day with my whole team. The meet was at Western University, and my parents had the chance to meet me in London to watch my races, too! After bussing back to Waterloo with the team, they hosted a party for myself and my teammate, and we went to The Bombshelter pub altogether one last time before it closed.
What course has been your favourite to take throughout your time at Waterloo?
In hindsight, my favourite course so far has been MSCI 342: Principles of Software Engineering which I took in my 3A term. In the moment, I found the course to be extremely time-consuming, but I think it’s one of the courses that I have learned the most from so far in my degree. In MSCI 342, I had the chance to properly learn how to work on a scrum team. Not only did I learn the basics of Agile, but I got to apply the iterative scrum methodology by being placed on a team for the duration of the term to develop a web application from scratch. This course really revealed to me how far I had come from someone who knew nothing about coding in first year to someone who could theoretically work on a full-stack development team. In addition to this, I met two of my closest friends through the course!