Past WiCS Valedictorians

Before coming to Waterloo, Nina Tan (BCS ’24) carefully planned her ideal university experience, aiming to complete each co-op term in a different city. She succeeded by living and working in Vancouver, Boston, Mountain View and Munich.

“I’ve always loved adventures and exploring new places, so the co-op program really appealed to me,” Tan says. “I still look back fondly on the memories and friendships I made in each one.”

She also held several executive leadership roles within Women in Computer Science (WiCS), which include serving as director of Publicity, Outreach and Mentorship. Over the course of her degree, Tan helped organize numerous professional, mentorship and community-building events that became a meaningful part of her university experience. 

Tan will be returning to Google, one of her former co-op employers, as a software engineer. In the long term, she hopes to build solutions in sustainability, education and women’s health, while reacquainting herself with old hobbies like singing and arts and crafts.

Monica Xu’s (BCS ‘21) interest in Waterloo began with Waterloo math contests, all the way from the Grade 7 Gauss to the Grade 12 Euclid. Graduating with a degree in Computer Science, minor in statistics, Xu was drawn to the University because of its emphasis on the creation, study and potential of technology.

“The community thrived in innovation, problem-solving and collaboration, and that was something I wanted to be a part of.”

Xu is proud of the breadth and depth of experiences she participated in while at Waterloo. When she was not studying abroad, working as a Math Teaching Assistant or getting involved in clubs such as Women in Computer Science (WiCS) and the Computer Science Club (CSC), she could be found performing with the University of Waterloo A Cappella Club. She was part of four different singing groups throughout her degree and describes her involvement in the A Cappella Club as a big part of her undergraduate experience. She has fond memories surrounding the times when, once every term, she would busk at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market with her A Cappella group, stating that “regardless of the weather, we never failed to sing our hearts out.”

While at Waterloo, she volunteered as product manager at UW Blueprint, a student organization all about “tech for social good” that offers pro-bono technical services to non-profits.

“Promoting diversity and inclusion of underrepresented minorities in technology is also something very important to me, so I spent a great deal of my time in extra-curricular activities towards diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) advocacy.”

Monica will be moving to New York to work as a product manager in the tech industry. Long-term, she is looking forward to travelling the world, learning new things and “building products that make people happy.”

Jenny Sun is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in the Honours Computer Science co-op program with an option in Business. Passionate about supporting diversity within STEM, Sun joined the Women in Computer Science committee in her first year. While on the committee, Sun organized a number of career-building, networking and social events for undergrad female students in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. In her last few years at Waterloo, Sun challenged herself with new opportunities and joined the University of Waterloo’s Blueprint as a software developer mentor to build tech for non-profits and the Human-Computer Interaction Lab as an undergrad research assistant. Her research focused on exploring the anthropomorphism of conversational agents in casual settings. After graduation, Sun will be joining Facebook as a software engineer and hopes to continue promoting diversity within STEM.

Clarisse Schneider graduated with a Bachelor of Software Engineering degree.