While she received some financial support through St. Michael’s Grants and Bursary program, she relied on finding a summer job to help pay for schooling. When she returned to her home in Alberta for the summer break after her first year, she started working in the oil and gas sector. She began by working as a labourer in Fort McMurray’s Syncrude Base Plant and by her second summer she was operating heavy equipment and taking on a project management role. In her third summer, she gained hands-on legal experience at Graham Construction.
“I grew up on a farm and my work experience has always been hands-on. I worked on various farms growing up and I always enjoyed it. I was raised with the belief that if you work hard there will be a return,” she says.
Last year, she combined her political science studies with her summer work by participating in a research program on mining transitions under Professor Donald Kingsbury that examined what happens to a mine during reclamation, rehabilitation, and remediation.
“Having worked in these sectors I wonder if I’ve found my calling as I’m interested in all of it. Energy makes the world move and it’s very important to our everyday lives. As these industries explore AI capabilities it’s fascinating to be a part of something bigger than I ever expected,” she says.
This past summer she returned to Graham Construction and then planned to work at the Dow Chemical site in Edmonton in a project management capacity, when an unexpected opportunity arose.
Through her network, she landed an interview with Ian MacGregor, owner of North West Capital Partners and a noted entrepreneur in the oil and gas and renewable energy sector. She was hired on the spot for a summer internship.
Reporting directly to MacGregor, she conducted research on renewable energy to support one of his entrepreneurial projects and provided operations support for a project to install water tanks and portable water systems in a conservation suburb he’s building near Banff, while also assisting in legal matters.
These roles put her in meetings that brought together senior leaders from the world’s top energy firms.
“I was fortunate to be in rooms full of extremely intelligent and successful people, each person there would have multiple companies. I was able to learn so much just by having the opportunity to sit and listen,” she says.
“I talked to a lot of the CEOs and VPs, and they would all say the same thing: starting from the bottom is so important to be good in these roles because you understand the company from all the angles,” she says.
She’s already delivered on projects with multimillion-dollar budgets in short time frames. “On one project I did everything from labouring to carpentry, to helping fit pipes, to heavy equipment operating and then going into the office for project coordinating,” she says.
“I kind of got thrown into things, but my managers had faith in me. I would basically just tackle things as they came up. There were a lot of stressful moments and ups and downs and in the moment, I would think this was the worst thing to do, but looking back it was the best way to learn,” she says.
“Sometimes the lesson was that if I were to ever to do this again, I would approach it in a completely different way,” she says.
Now that she’s back in Toronto for her final year of study, she will be working on two research projects while pursuing modelling and acting. One project is again with Professor Kingsbury and will look how the world is transitioning from oil and gas. Inspired by her ability to achieve what she thought would be impossible; she’s considering pivoting to pursue a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration.
