Juxtaposition and Integration

Tell us a bit about your background. Where did you grow up and what were your main interests?

I grew up in Kitchener, Ontario. My early interests were in music (especially piano and choir) and reading. In high school I pursued a broad range of interests including band, theatre, editing the school newsletter, student council, volleyball, and camping. I was passionate about writing and exploring big ideas in history and the social sciences, and less interested in science and math. It wasn’t until the very end of high school (and then at University of Waterloo) that I got deeper into math and technical stuff, which has had a pretty big influence in my career.

Summer camp was another major influence--a source of community, a chance to be in nature, and a way to explore my creativity. I attended and then worked at Silver Lake Mennonite Camp for many years.

What is your primary professional commitment?

I work at Shopify as a data scientist. My broader team is responsible for the systems that collect and organize the company’s data so that it can be used to understand the business and make good decisions. This can require everything from heavy programming, to designing tools for monitoring metrics, to helping to decide how success should be defined for the business. This work requires a lot of breadth and depth in both technical skills and domain knowledge.

My work has recently become more focused on data engineering and development, including building operational systems that handle data from incoming prospects who might want to buy Shopify’s higher-tier products/services.

What are your creative and artistic interests?

Music is my main creative focus, but increasingly I'm getting into producing art videos, zines, mixtapes, and collages. I am especially interested in constructing an intentional relationship between technology, my creative process and my professional practice.  

Many of my current projects started as an escape from internet addiction and I try to keep my creative work separate from the "attention economy” whenever possible. I prefer to share my work through local events, DIY physical media, and my personal website. I recently premiered an art project at a local art short film festival. The piece was called “The Monument, or, Reclaiming My Mortification” and it combined musical elements with surreal 3d animation and visual synthesis. 

Collage has become especially important, it seems. Can you describe the ideas behind this image and the visual choices that you made?

One of the ways I bring music and visuals together is by making original cover art for mixtapes. I put a lot of thought into the theme of the tape and the flow from one track to the next. Then, I use that as inspiration for the cover art.

This collage is cover art that I made for a tape called across the desert which I made after my first trip to Los Angeles to capture the contradictory nature of that place: both a paradise and a desert, both a cultural landmark and a mess of suburban sprawl.

Why did you decide to join KI when you entered the university?

I intended to focus on psychology but knew I needed to explore a broad range of ideas. I was drawn to KI because I could do that early exploration within a supportive community.

I eventually used KI's flexible course structure to develop a degree for myself in quantitative research. Compared to most degree programs, my choices appear pretty freeform, but I actually was quite deliberate in selecting courses that I felt would make me a better researcher. I began by exploring a variety of courses with my KI requirements, then pursued deeper disciplinary research into psychology and social science, and then broadened my studies to explore uses of computer science for quantitative research. It was in the KI computer science breadth requirement that I learned to code. That was the beginning of the path that eventually became my career.

Which classes have you found most valuable professionally or personally? Why?

It’s hard to pick just one. My KI classes in creative thinking and design thinking definitely stand out as experiences that have stuck with me. And there are several technical courses that directly impacted my career, such as Statistics, Psychometrics and Object-Oriented Programming. Databases (which was incredibly boring at the time) provided skills that I now use every day.

Professor John McLevey’s INTEG 375 (Special topics course in Network Science) also stands out. It was in that course that I had a distinct “Eureka!” moment when I realized that I could use my programming knowledge to answer questions about data that opened up research questions I couldn’t answer with pre-built software.

KI is a small department with a strong commitment to community-building. How did this contribute to your education?

KI’s community-oriented culture made it easy to learn (and be inspired by) other students and faculty. The faculty in particular had a big impact on me, both as a learner starting university and at the end of my studies as I transitioned into my career.

I was lucky to take several courses from Linda Carson in my first year, and I can’t overstate how formative and energizing her teaching was for me at that stage. Her teaching on creative thinking and practice continues to influence me to this day. Linda’s creative principles still come to mind when I’m working through a problem or idea, and her creative thinking assignments caused a life-long obsession with mind maps (which are still my preferred way to organize my thoughts.)

I was also very lucky to have Dr. McLevey as a mentor as I developed as a researcher and data scientist. I stumbled into a research position with him​ that gave me ​the​​ opportunity to develop the ​real world coding ​skills that eventually launched my career. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without John’s support!

KI is an inspiring place where you get to learn and work with lots of interesting and inspiring people. A common thread throughout my work with Linda, John, and the KI program in general was having space to develop my own unique ideas and skills. The personal nature of the KI learning community actively supports this.

What advice might you give to students entering or considering KI?

• Find problems to solve that apply the skills you’re learning. I valued the courses that taught me technical and creative skills, but it was finding unusual applications in other courses and contexts that developed those skills into something I could use to build my career. There’s a big difference between solving a problem that somebody has assigned you and identifying opportunities to solve problems with the skills you have.

• Find great mentors: they can have a huge impact on your learning and development. Look for opportunities to work with experts doing stuff you’re interested in.

This interview is part of a project conducted by Dr. Mary Stewart during her two-month fellowship at the University of Waterloo in the fall of 2022. Thank you to Dr. Stewart for her work in highlighting the transdisciplinary nature of the KI program and its community members, and to Fulbright Canada for making this opportunity possible.