During a conversation with a friend a few years ago, Sarah Legg had a revelation. The tag on her clothes read “Made in Cambodia.” She ate food grown in the U.S. And the building materials she used in class? She questioned where they actually came from.
“Every action has an impact somewhere else. As engineers, we are working in fields that are connected through policy and materials,” the fourth-year civil engineering student understands now.
The discussion became the inspiration for an essay on global engineering, winning Legg the 2010 Leaders for the Future award offered by the Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education. Soon after, Legg put her ideas into practice and boarded a plane to Ghana to volunteer with Engineers Without Borders working with local government to help educate farmers.
Legg already has a job lined up with a Vancouver-based environmental engineering consulting company when she graduates, with some of her work taking place in remote, northern B.C. communities. “The position provides me with a great opportunity to apply my engineering problem-solving skills to problems that really matter.”