Trinity Ma on Leading Learners Blog

Feb 27, 2022

Interview With UBC Engineering Physics Student, Emma Gray

Please note: The original interview was conducted in August 2020.

Your nominator mentioned that you are the Chief Executive and Co-Captain of UBC BEST. What inspired you to get involved?

Before I chose to pursue engineering (the chance to work at the interface of math, art, design, AND science was too tough to pass up), I was very sure that I wanted to become a doctor. A lot of this, for me, has always come back to wanting to help people through the work that I do. 

Though I went with engineering, I was still super interested in the medical space. So, the summer after my first year, I joined as a volunteer at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre in Toronto and spent four months working with radiologists, engineers and physicists to develop a brain health diagnostic system. 

This opened my eyes to the world of biomedical engineering, and taught me that you don’t need to be a doctor to have a direct impact on people and their wellbeing. Joining UBC BEST (which stands for Biomedical Engineering Student Team) was the natural next step for me to keep having that impact and building skills in that area. Two years after joining, I became one of the team captains.

When you are not fulfilling your leadership duties, what do you do as pass time in your free time?

When I’m not working with BEST, my days are filled with classes or co-op terms. I've worked with research teams in neuroimaging and biomechanics, a leading product development consultancy that specializes in tackling hard problems, and, most recently, Microsoft. This semester, I’m working at Vodasafe as an Engineering co-op, attending Innovation Leadership lectures, and TA-ing my favourite Software Architecture course.

It’s really important to make time to spend with your friends and loved ones! I spend my free time hiking, camping, reading, and playing Dungeons & Dragons. Also, building giant robots.

Pre-pandemic, I loved to figure skate, volunteer with STEM outreach programs, and work as a mentor within Engineering Physics.

What was your biggest takeaway from highschool?

Use high school to learn how you study best. Academically, I wasn’t super challenged by grade 12 courses and went into university expecting to continue coasting along with my complete lack of study habits. I’ll never forget getting my first math midterm back in first year, thinking I got 47 out of 50, and then learning it was actually 47%. 

It was quite the wake-up call, and I started my university career learning to study while I was taking classes, making life much trickier than it had to be.

What advice do you have for students going into Engineering Physics? How was this transition for you?

Don’t self-reject. If you tell yourself you’re not good enough and shut yourself down before you start, you’ll never know how something might have worked out.

A lot of the structures presented to you (job applications, career paths, the list goes on) aren’t one-size-fits-all, and a great number of opportunities in life aren’t as inaccessible as you might think. It never hurts to apply to that job, or that scholarship, or to reach out to someone you think could help connect you to something amazing. The worst thing that could happen is that they say no.

At UBC, Engineering Physics is a small, competitive and multidisciplinary program that aims to build out a comprehensive foundation in mechanical, electrical and software engineering as well as physics. Be prepared to work hard, and don’t hesitate to lean on your community (classmates, friends, office hours with professors)! Also, it’s ok to fail sometimes.

My transition from high school to university was interesting. Socially, living in residence helped me to build out a community and make new friends relatively easily. Grades (see the last question) were a different story. Using high school as a chance to figure out which study methods work well for you is SO helpful! 

And last but not least, how would you describe a leader?

To me, a good leader is someone who unites a team behind a vision and then spends the rest of their time working to empower the people around them to achieve it. The best leaders are constantly in service of the people they are leading, and even if they spend time delegating tasks, they spend the least amount of time possible marching around and “telling people what to do”.