“The biggest thing I would have told my 18 year-old self is to never ever be afraid of making mistakes and failures in engineering. Those are the things that shape you into a better person.”
Terry Zhang
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Applied Science
- Grad year: 2019
- Program:
- Campus: Okanagan
Terry Zhang hails from Shenyang, China, and lived in Niagara Falls, Ontario before moving to Nanaimo, and then Kelowna, to attend university at UBCO. As a civil engineering graduate, Terry has held various leadership roles in extracurricular groups on campus that affected many aspects of UBCO for students. He served two years on the UBC Board of Governors, where he oversaw the administration of high-level decisions for the property management, revenue, business and affairs of UBC.
Terry has also served as Vice-President Finance and Vice-President External (consecutively) of the UBC Okanagan Engineering Society. As the Vice-President Finance, Terry supported a successful referendum to propose an annual student fee for engineering students which brought over $250,000 to the operating budget of the society since inception. During his tenure as a Vice-President External, Terry handled a budget of $26,000 while acting as a head delegate to represent UBCO at conferences hosted by regional and federal engineering student societies and chaired the sixth annual Okanagan Engineering Competition. Additionally, Terry was a Senator-at-Large for the UBC Okanagan Student Senate Caucus. He was the fundraising chair for Sigma Phi Delta fraternity and raised $800 for Breast Cancer Society of Canada and Movember Foundation to-date.
UBC Board of Governors UBC Okanagan Engineering Society
What have you learned in engineering that is most valuable?
Throughout my five work terms with the UBC Engineering Co-op program, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that your ability to communicate with stakeholders (e.g. clients, contractors, employees) is crucial in making a difference for society.
One of my mentors taught me that technical abilities can be learned with time, grit and effort, but interpersonal skills are learned through experience, failure and taking risks. I was grateful to have learned these communication skills at the School of Engineering, both inside and outside classrooms, through group projects and extracurricular activities.
What advice would you give a student considering engineering?
The biggest thing I would have told my 18 year-old self is to never ever be afraid of making mistakes and failures in engineering.
Those are the things that shape you into a better person. I’ve had many areas in my time at UBCO where I failed and then succeeded through perseverance.
When I started out in the UBC Engineering Co-op program, I applied to over 200 jobs and received only one interview in my first co-op term; and I’ve gotten denied many times after hundreds of applications and interviews. By the time I was applying for my fifth co-op term, I had seven interviews after only 30 applications. Fast-forward to today, I’ve had the pleasure of working at five different companies and organizations in my co-op career, which allowed me the flexibility of choosing between competitive offers for my full-time job hunt.
After I failed a course in second year, I received a 97% in that course in my third year while taking a full course-load with six other third-year courses and having the highest semester average of my academic career. I’ve gotten rejected for many campus roles and club positions only to have leadership roles in many extracurricular positions like the Engineering Society and the Board of Governors which have all been extremely rewarding. Not to mention getting denied by many scholarships and awards I’ve applied and interviewed for while receiving the Engineers and Geoscientists BC (EGBC) Student Leadership Award in my final year.
How will you go on to make a difference in our world?
The field of civil engineering world is fascinating, in that every decision made by a civil engineer affect hundreds and thousands of people in their everyday lives.
A stop sign or a speed bump on the road can make a difference between life and death for a person. A new building can create dreams and opportunities for hundreds and thousands of people. Proper water and wastewater systems can mean clean water for a whole country.
I hope to make this difference in the world knowing that one positive change I can make to at least one person can make a whole world of a difference to them.
