For David Khazzam, one of the great joys of university was getting to do a little bit of everything.
Khazzam is this year’s recipient of the Faculty of Mathematics K. D. Fryer Gold Medal, an honour given to a student who exemplifies academic excellence, good citizenship, and involvement in extracurricular activities. He graduates this Friday with a Bachelor of Computer Science degree.
In high school, Khazzam attended an International Baccalaureate school, which “encouraged me to always be curious – something which I feel has very much shaped how I approach life,” he says.
He excelled in math in high school, and enjoyed the couple of computer science courses he took, thus he decided to study computer science at Waterloo. “I like that there are so many different opportunities in the field, and how new types of roles are constantly being invented,” he says. “The field is changing so quickly, leading to so much ground-breaking work being done.”
He got to be on the forefront of that rapidly changing field during his two internships at Google. “That had been a dream of mine for over a decade,” he says. “It was the cherry on top to be able to work in the Googleplex, with a desk right under the Google sign!”
Despite his academic and workplace success, Khazzam sometimes struggled with imposter syndrome. He discovered that the best cure for imposter syndrome came from maintaining strong relationships: with his classmates, but also with peers outside of his field that he met through multiple extracurricular activities.
Khazzam tried a wide variety of activities during his time at Waterloo: interning abroad, singing a cappella, and dancing Cuban salsa. He made friends at the gym and played a variety of intramural sports. “I’m proud that we won the soccer intramurals championships in my final year: a prize that my team had strived for our whole university career,” he says.
His most unusual extracurricular? He was the captain of one of Canada’s best quidditch teams. Quidditch, the wizarding world’s favorite sport in the Harry Potter universe, involves chasing balls while riding flying brooms. “It’s a challenging sport, because even if we don’t fly (yet), there’s significant strategy and athleticism involved,” he says of the Muggle version of the sport. “It also has the added bonus of attracting great people.”
The adventures are only continuing post-Waterloo: Khazzam has spent the last five months backpacking through Europe, and after graduating he will be jobhunting in New York City. As he celebrates the end of this chapter, he is grateful for the diverse array of experiences he has had, and for the many people who have cheered him on throughout it. “I would like to thank my parents for always supporting me and encouraging me, my sisters for always being excited for me, and all the friends I’ve made at Waterloo for making my experience so wonderful,” he says.
His biggest piece of advice for incoming students is to take advantage of the many opportunities that university provides to try new and fun things. “Make sure to find some time for the things that make you happy,” he says. “That’s where you’ll make memories that will last a lifetime!”