Name: Maxime Chin
Program: Mechanical Engineering, General Option with Co-op
Extra-curricular Activities:
- E-Team Member 2008-2010
- GEERing Up! Board of Advisors
- Women in Engineering, Member
- UBC Cowan Vertebrate Museum Taxidermist
- Canuck Place Children’s Hospice Family Volunteer
- Union Gospel Mission Treasures Program Volunteer
- Canadian Cancer Society Camp Goodtimes Counsellor
- Bird watching with my dog
My blog: click here
Who I Am
You can best describe me as an energetic and up-beat person who likes to keep busy especially within the community. I was born and raised in Vancouver and absolutely love each and every pocket of Vancouver from Commercial Drive to Kerrisdale. Having been brought up and immersed in this diverse city, you’ll find me constantly trying out new foods, visiting new shops and still discovering the city!
A Day in My Life
A day of mech starts off at 6:45 AM during which I’ll get ready and choose my outfit for the day; this usually involves careful consideration of whether I’ll be in the machine shop or not during the day. Most of my classes start at 8:00 AM so after a short commute to school I’ll spend most of my day at school, usually grabbing lunch during a team meeting and studying on campus until an evening meeting for one of my extra-curricular teams. Once I get home it’s usually around 7:00 PM and I’ll prepare dinner for myself, walk my dog, check up on my celebrity gossip, study some more, and finally get to bed a little after midnight.
Why I Chose Mech
I love working with people, whether they are grandparents, children or professionals, I thrive on having the opportunity to communicate with others and working in a team. Mechanical engineering’s versatility offered me the satisfaction that I will be able to work with different engineers and clients directly. The fact that I can work in a hospital developing biomedical devices with patients and medical professionals as a career or create HVAC systems with architects in green buildings as another career path all within a single degree program is amazing.
Life Beyond Classes
Keeping in touch with friends and taking time to immerse myself in my hobbies, such as jewelry making and cooking is very important to me. This life outside of classes becomes much more obtainable when on a Co-op term during which I spend 4 or 8 months working, making money and not having to take classes.
Getting Here from High School
I took quite the detour to get to Mech. During high school I didn’t have a lot of resources explaining to me what exactly engineering was (like this website!) and had a lot of distorted and preconceived notions about the discipline. So I abandoned Engineering as an option and entered Science at UBC hoping to be a doctor. After getting a job as a GEERing Up! Instructor and leading projects and camps for girls and having them discover their potential in Engineering, I also rediscovered mine and actually felt excited about the fact that I could apply my scientific knowledge to create things. In science, I had been rote memorizing and was limited in my creativity; I wanted more of a challenge. So after my Science degree, I transferred to Engineering.
The Best Part
The student environment is amazing. I have approachable and supportive professors, knowledgeable advisors, motivated classmates, and quality learning resources. All of these elements combined make me feel that I am valued as a student and that there is a network of people that I can rely on as I persist in my degree program.
My Advice to Prospective Students
- Keep your marks up. Although marks don’t say much about who you really are, they do sometimes get you scholarships and the job!
- Join a student team or organization that shares your interests. Mech does broad based admissions and it’s a great way to meet new friends
- Don’t be afraid to take on unfamiliar challenges when working on a team assignment. While doing a part of a project that you’re good at is great, you’ll have a much more rewarding experience tackling a part that is truly a challenge for you!