As another class prepares to cross the convocation stage, Waterloo’s newest graduates are reflecting on the experiences, people and opportunities that shaped their undergraduate years.
Dakota Bacchus, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the School of Architecture, says Rick Haldenby (BES ’73, BArch ’75) had the biggest impact on his time at Waterloo. Bacchus first met Haldenby in second year and was struck by his care for students and his ability to bring history to life through storytelling.
That storytelling became real on the School’s Rome term, a program Haldenby founded in 1979, where buildings Bacchus had studied in lecture slides became places he could stand inside. Closer to home, Bacchus found community in a cohort of about 70 students working out of an old mill building in Cambridge, and spent two years as president of the Waterloo Architecture Student Association (WASA). He is now continuing at Waterloo in the Master of Architecture program, with a thesis exploring how buildings quietly shape the behaviour of the people inside them.
Go to The experiences that shape what comes next for Waterloo’s newest grads to read more from Bacchus and hear from graduating students in all six faculties and the School of Pharmacy.
