alumni spotlight series fall 2014
for a better
world
How one grad, equipped with a civil engineering degree, has pursued her passion for sustainability as a graduate student at Dalhousie University.
Keegan Balcom graduated from Mulgrave School in June 2009. As a member of Mulgrave’s second IBDP class, Keegan went on to earn her undergraduate degree at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. After a summer of traveling South America, Keegan opted to pursue a Master of Resource and Environmental Management (MREM) at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In this week’s Alumni Spotlight, Keegan shares with us how she navigated post-secondary education and discovered her passion for shaping an environmentally sustainable society.
Keegan Balcom What motivated you to attend McGill University to pursue your degree in civil engineering? When I graduated from Mulgrave, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew that an engineering degree would give me a good foundation for a whole range of options. I wanted to study in a large city, I wanted to explore somewhere new, and I wanted a top engineering programme. That pretty much narrowed it down to Toronto or Montreal. Then I fell in love with Montreal while touring eastern universities, so it was a pretty obvious choice in the end.
Can you describe to us your experience as a female in a maledominated field of study?
Q&A
Civil engineering at McGill was actually pretty close to fifty percent women. Even in specific classes that were male-dominated, I often just forgot to notice. Unfortunately in the workplace, I’ve found it’s not quite the same. It can sometimes take a bit of backbone and patience to communicate your competence.
After graduating with Distinction from McGill, you decided to pursue a Master of Resource and Environmental Management (MREM) at Dalhousie University. How has your engineering background helped to prepare you for the MREM programme?
The skills I’ve learned in each program are really complementary rather than constructive. In engineering I honed my analytic and problem solving skills, and at Dal, I’m building knowledge of sustainable development and management of resources. But thinking about the most helpful skill from my undergraduate program for the master’s, I’d say it’s the ability to work hard, collaboratively, and effectively.
What type of research does your programme entail? The programme is course-based and focuses on theory and practical knowledge of resource and environmental management in the biophysical,
sociopolitical and legal realms. Students are able to individualize their programme through electives and course assignments to focus on their area of interest. For me, that’s the sustainable management of resources at a community level.
As a part of your MREM, you have spent the summer spearheading an initiative to transition Canadian Forces Base Greenwood into a sustainable enterprise. What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in creating this initiative? continued on next page...
The biggest challenge was figuring out my role. I brought the internship idea to the engineering leader on the base. They were keen to have a competent intern who could focus on improving the sustainability of their operations, but hadn’t thought about the role or potential outcomes in advance. Due to a lack of funding, no one on the base had a primary duty to coordinate a focused effort around sustainability. This meant I not only needed to define my own role, but also to propose and pursue a direction for a sustainability programme that could be effective with extremely limited funding.
As a Mulgrave student, you were heavily involved in service initiatives, having served as a prefect and as the co-chair of the Cypress Student Summit. What skills did service-based learning instill in you and how do you integrate these skills into your day-today routine?
working in sustainability programme application and governance. In particular, I would like to work at the community level where organizations such as governments, corporations or the military have the ability to affect significant change in the sustainability of our practices and operations.
What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing a programme that focuses on resource and environmental management? Think through where you might fit and what you might actually want to do. The environmental field is huge and ill-defined right now; it ranges from engineering of waste water treatment plants to field work collecting information on wildlife, with everything in between. It may be valuable to get an undergraduate degree in another area and then angle yourself, either through employment, extra-curricular activities or another degree towards resource and environmental management. Most degrees can be applied in a resource and environmental management field, not just engineering or biology, but economics, psychology, and law, just to name a few. If you don`t know exactly where you fit yet, talk to people. Learn about the space and what kind of work is out there as much as you can before jumping into a lengthy programme.
I’ve always been driven by a passion to affect positive change. Being a prefect and organizing the Cypress Student Summit showed me I could make a real difference and helped me discover my strong suits: organization, planning and communication. In tackling change in these roles, I Keegan Balcom, September 2014 learned to use reason, logic and research to work As interviewed by Chloe Scott through obstacles and to facilitate agreement across a diverse group. Now, my passion is sustainability, and all of these skills help me pursue Know an amazing Mulgrave grad you would like to see featured? Contact alumni@mulgrave.com. this passion as my career.
You will be graduating in December 2014. What is your post-grad dream job? As my passion lies in transitioning our society to a sustainable one, I would love to continue
Are you, or do you know, a student who is interested in pursuing a Civil Engineering degree at McGill or learning more about sustainability? Contact alumni@mulgrave.com with any questions for Keegan.