Interview with Darya Tavvafi (2T6)

EngSci was the top program in the Canadian universities that I applied to that provided the Aerospace Engineering major. In terms of academics, the transition from high school to university was very challenging. While I took plenty of AP classes that formed a rigorous curriculum that taught me how to learn effectively, their contents didn’t go into nearly as much depth as my first-year courses in EngSci, so the workload was still intense. Moreover, in contrast to my high school teachers, each EngSci professor had vastly different teaching styles which manifested in their lectures and deliverables. Overall, my time management skills went a long way, but I had to work hard on becoming more adaptable and putting more effort into learning rather than attaining the highest grades.

It has been a challenging but fulfilling experience. When I joined the club, I was the only member in addition to the past VP Communications, so we took on additional roles as Acting Chairs of the club. Even though it was more than I signed up for, it actually helped me develop my leadership and management skills—I got to help hire directors, contribute to the Dinner Dance, and more. As for my VP Academic responsibilities, I had to run Option Representative elections, manage the Option and Class Representatives, and act as the middleman between the student body and the EngSci faculty. The hardest part wasn’t the managerial tasks, but rather the student-faculty interactions that required me to improve my diplomacy skills. By the end, I had grown from being scared of any type of confrontation to being more confident in my ability to express EngSci students’ needs.

Over the course of three years in EngSci, including one year in Aerospace Engineering, the technique that worked best for me was being as proactive as possible and using every resource available to me to make my life easier. First, I did my best to attend every lecture and tutorial, not only paying attention but asking questions to aid my learning. I sat in the front row to minimize distractions, maximize accountability, and encourage interactions with the professor.

Second, I took advantage of office hours to ask questions about assignments as soon as they were released, check my work for assignments or past exams, and familiarize myself with the professor in general. The last point ended up helping me find my current research position!

Finally, I used courses.skule.ca to find and work on as many past exams as possible for practice in studying the course content. For the few EngSci courses that I took during which we had a different professor than the one who taught the course in previous years, I relied on the resources that the new professor explicitly gave us instead. All of these habits helped me finish deliverables earlier and learn more effectively so I had more time for extracurriculars, hobbies, and social activities.

I never had a specific moment in which I became fully certain that I wanted to go into Aerospace Engineering. As a child, I had a passion for both art and robotics. However, when I went into high school, I enjoyed immersing myself in difficult mathematics and science classes. I became fascinated with space exploration because of the immense challenges that it posed compared to engineering problems on Earth. However, I didn’t know which specific aspect of Aerospace Engineering I wanted to work in. During my first and second year of EngSci, I was amazed by the breadth of knowledge that was offered by the curriculum, and even more so by the process of applying what I learned in Praxis II and III. I loved both the design and fabrication processes and the emphasis on teamwork and communication. My experience inspired me to individually work on a personal project over the summer before my third year. I found that I wanted to work in controls, because of both its applicability in a variety of problems and its ties to systems engineering, which would allow me to work with every component of a system at a high level.

Please take care of yourselves during your time in EngSci! Dedicate some time each week, even if it’s just a little bit, to doing something non-academic that makes you happy, moving your body in any way, and/or spending time with loved ones. I know it’s easier said than done as a first-year, but it’s especially important not to neglect your physical and mental health. Try to maintain a healthy amount of stress, but if you cannot avoid an all-nighter, treat yourself after everything is over. Remember that you’re doing your best and everything will work out for you no matter what. Have fun learning!