“I didn’t want to go to Waterloo,” Helen Dong says with a grin. “My older brother went here, and even though I look up to him I always wanted to do my own thing. But my mom convinced me I should go, and I’m so, so glad I did.”
Dong is this year’s winner of the K. D. Fryer Gold Medal, which is given to a student in the Mathematics Faculty each year who exemplifies both high academic standing and good citizenship.
She graduates on the Dean’s Honours List tomorrow with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science along with minors in Combinatorics & Optimization and Computational Mathematics. While Dong was initially reluctant, when she got to campus, she decided to approach her time at Waterloo the way she approaches everything: she gave it her all, with a smile.
Dong grew up in Mississauga, excelling in the Enhanced Learning Program at The Woodlands Secondary School, but she didn’t dream of becoming a computer scientist.
That all changed during the pandemic: her older brother, a software engineer living in San Diego who is seventeen years her senior, moved back home to quarantine with the family. “I got to watch him work,” she remembers, “and thought it was so cool. There was this one day when he was working on a Python script and I thought – oh, I’d like to do this.”
Long before Dong decided on computer science at Waterloo, she was sure about her other major passion: athletics. “I really like to push myself,” she says. “That’s something that’s always been consistent: pushing myself, keeping busy, trying new things.”
She played multiple sports in middle school, won MVP on her high school volleyball team, and participated in track and field. A lifelong gymnast, by the time she was thirteen she was also competing internationally as a power tumbler.
When Dong started university in fall 2021, she knew she’d have to work hard to balance her studies and her extracurriculars. Classes were partially in person and partially online, so between in-person classes she was commuting to Oakville for 14 hours per week of gymnastics training. Her hard work paid off – she competed with Team Canada in the 2021 World Championships in Azerbaijan, placing 20th individually and 5th with the team.
“I couldn’t have done any of it without my mom,” Dong says. “I’m so thankful to everyone who has supported me – my friends, family, professors – but my mom was the one getting up day after day to drive me to school and training.”
Even while she was competing internationally, Dong also got involved on campus, joining the varsity cheerleading team her first year. “It was a lot of fun, but because of Covid we were all masked and distanced, and I think I was looking for something a little different, a little more involved,” she says.
After a knee injury at the end of her first year, she ended her power tumbling career, which left her looking for a new athletic challenge. A few days before her knee surgery, she saw an ad for novice rowing tryouts, and set her sights on trying out once she was healed.
Eight months later, she showed up to tryouts determined to succeed. Dong had already competed on Team Canada, had survived years of long practices, and was getting As in math and computer science classes, but “that tryout was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was panting, seeing colours in the air.”
Rowing has a short season, and training was intense. Dong became the driver for the team carpool, so every morning she was picking members up before sunrise to drive to Cambridge for practice on the river. “We’d spend two hours or more in the gym and on the river, then drive back to campus for a full day of classes.” Dong loved the intensity and the closeness that quickly emerged among the team members. “Everyone was so motivated, and we became good friends. I even met my boyfriend on the rowing team.”
Dong (centre) with her Waterloo Rowing teammates
Dong also got involved in student life, volunteering as a student ambassador and at orientation. She studied hard, always starting assignments as soon as she could to stay on top of her work. And she went above and beyond during her co-ops: first at Ritual, then at Google Canada. That internship at Google turned into another one in California, and now a full-time job as a software engineer.
“My advice to students is to just get involved outside of the classroom as much as you can,” she says. “If all you do is go to classes and work on assignments, you’ll miss out on all the relationships and experiences that university has to offer.”
To learn more about the K. D. Fryer Gold Medal, visit the Faculty of Mathematics website.