Three women leaders in their chosen fields share with the Waterloo Engineering community how they harnessed the power of their STEM backgrounds to chart exciting life and career paths.
Waterloo Engineering alumni Inderjit Takk (BASc ‘98, systems design engineering) and Stephanie Thompson (BASc ‘01, chemical engineering) joined Linda Archer Cornfield (LLD ’24), in an inspiring discussion moderated by Dr. Mary Wells, dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
The conversation opened with Cornfield discussing the systems and critical thinking skills that were established in her STEM career and which have continued to serve her well moving into the creative world of documentary film production.
Cornfield earned a Bachelor of Applied Science from Miami University and a master’s degree from MIT Sloan School of Management. Following a successful career at Microsoft, Cornfield and her husband, Waterloo Engineering alum David Cornfield (BASc, ‘85, systems design engineering), chose to pursue their shared interests to find pragmatic, sustainable approaches to better stewardship of the earth. They have executive produced 23 documentaries to date, including the award-winning Chasing Ice and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Cornfield says she and David have used systems thinking when determining how the documentaries they produce can be best crafted to touch the hearts and minds of viewers and hopefully make a connection and change their mindsets around issues like climate change. They both recently received honorary doctorates from the Faculty of Engineering and addressed the graduating class at the spring convocation ceremony.
Dr. Mary Wells, Inderjit Takk, Stephanie Thompson and Linda Archer Cornfield
Thompson, a technical manager in manufacturing engineering at General Motors, is passionate about connection. This she says has driven her from her time at Waterloo Engineering where she volunteered with EngSoc as the Women in Engineering representative to launching STEM by Steph, which hosts a workshop series aimed at making STEM subjects accessible to anyone and breaking down barriers for women.
Thompson says her vision is “to get more people connected. I’m always looking for the gaps in experiences that people don’t have and trying to fill those gaps,” she says. “The world is big until you find the place in the Venn diagram for yourself and someone else where you can connect and help one another.”
Giving back to women in the industry is also a passion for Takk who is vice-president and head of global trading at iA GAM. As a member of Women in Capital Markets, she always makes time to join panels and meet younger colleagues over coffee.
All three women started with a plan to get a STEM education. But the careers they built from there couldn’t have been charted. Thompson says she is always on the lookout for what she referred to as “serendipitous moments.” in her life.
Takk agreed, noting that growing up she didn’t have any knowledge of working in finance and it was a co-op term at Citibank during her time at Waterloo Engineering that set off a path that had led her to where she is today.
“Always be open to opportunities when they present themselves,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about trading and one morning I was on the trading floor fixing some tech and a trader came in and said they would teach me how to trade. That changed my life. I always saw myself as a girl who sat on the 18th floor coding, but I took the opportunity when it presented itself.”
Agreeing with Takk, Cornfield says “I always say that we have had a terrific life and if we had tried to, we never could have planned it."