The sense of accomplishment you get when interacting with students is the most rewarding thing about teaching. Engaging students in some thought, getting them to think about a problem at hand and solving it, is very satisfying.
You’re the director and advisor of the Business Administration (Laurier) and Mathematics (Waterloo) Double Degree Program. What makes this program special to you?
The students are quite cool. They’re all for the most part our top students, as you need to have very high grades and lots of extra-curricular interests to get admitted into this program. It’s a very diverse program. The students are getting two degrees, they learn about all sorts of areas in the business program; and they’re also doing math.
In the mathematics program, they could be studying pure math, actuarial science, combinatorics and optimization, etc.; the breadth is quite interesting and the same is true for the fields they work in: marketing, finance, actuarial science and accounting. It’s this diversity among the students in the program that I find interesting.
What would you advise prospective students?
Pursuing a double degree program is a hard choice to make. Getting two degrees at the same time is a big time commitment. The Business Administration and Mathematics Double Degree Program is very structured, there are lots of required courses, and students get almost no course choices during the first three years.
If you are eager to begin studying Actuarial Science, Accounting or other majors; I would suggest considering a single degree program, where you will start taking your major specific courses in second year, as opposed to the Business Administration and Mathematics Double Degree Program; where you wouldn’t be taking these courses until fourth and fifth years.
Fun Fact
If you’re on the varsity swim team, you’ll probably see me at the pool quite often.
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