Manda Champagne crossed the convocation stage for the second time in her life when she received her degree in mining engineering. She says education and versatility are the keys to success.
(Edmonton) Manda Champagne is keen on exploring career paths less traveled. With degrees in art and design and engineering, and with work experiences in mining engineering and teaching English abroad, to say she is versatile would be an understatement.
Champagne earned an undergraduate degree in industrial design at the U of A in 2010 and last week graduated with a degree in mining engineering. She's now kick-starting her career with a job as a computer engineer.
Some might say the diverse areas are unlikely academic friends, but Champagne has used her formal background and hours of hands-on experience to get an edge in the competitive job market.
She's clearly a believer in investing in yourself through education.
"Right now, if you just took your first degree, it would probably be a good time to go and do your master's degree," said Champagne. "These days, as the market is getting tougher, if you don't take something like engineering or nursing for your first degree, you probably need a second degree to get on a path to a good career."
But how did she connect the dots between industrial design and mining engineering?
During her program in the Department of Art and Design, Champagne got a good grasp of 3-D design, AutoCAD, editing and visualization software, as well as sculpturing and prototyping-must-knows for all engineers.
"The more you learn about design, especially sustainable design, the more you realize that you kind of have to be an engineer to make things better," she said.
After graduation from industrial design she spent a year teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. Returning to Canada, Champagne began studying engineering at the U of A. Complementing theoretical courses with hands-on experience, she completed paid placement through the Faculty of Engineering Co-op program with Suncor in Fort McMurray as a reliability engineer, with the North American Construction Group as a project co-ordinator, and worked in coal mines in Stoney Plain.
"At the end of the degree, you have 20 months of experience, so it's almost two years of on-topic engineering experience," Champagne said, reflecting on her placements as a co-op student.
Now, though, she is stretching herself in a new direction, working as a software programmer with a Calgary-based Quorum Business Solutions. It's a demonstration of the problem-solving skills that allow engineers to take on new challenges with confidence.
"All engineers have to take a basic computer programming course that gives a solid foundation. At the co-op jobs at mines, you basically had to teach yourself some computer programming to create and run reports in Excel too."
She says fine arts and mining engineering complement each other to form a well-rounded in-depth understanding of design and construction work.
"In mining you need to be able to visualize things in 3-D, especially if you're designing slopes and dumps, which I definitely learned in my other degree," she said. "My degrees definitely make me look like a more well-rounded person."