Engineers gain a lot of useful skills during their time at university: time management, advanced math skills, analytical thinking, and complex problem-solving among them. These are skills that can serve graduates in plenty of useful ways during their future careers, even if those journeys lead them to careers outside of engineering.
“Engineering was my toolbox, Queen’s was my community, and my friends were the ones who showed me there’s more than one path,” says Sasha Sadr (Sc’07 Mechanical Engineering, MBA’08). “That combination changed my life.”
He credits that environment with teaching him resilience and the importance of community support. He still recalls classmates who tutored him through difficult courses, often without realizing how crucial their help would be to his success.
Those bonds have lasted. Many of Sadr’s closest friends today are still the roommates and classmates he met in Kingston. “The friends you make at university can be the most game-changing relationships of your life,” he says.
To help future engineering students in search of that high-quality learning and growing environment he enjoyed, Sadr has begun giving back through an award aimed at students with the greatest need: the Sadr-Harvey Family Award. For him, it’s both a way of staying connected and of paying forward the opportunities he received.
“I’m not the biggest donor,” he says, “but I wanted to make a difference. At some point, you hit a milestone in your life where you remember the promise you made to give back.”
The Sadr-Harvey Family Award is awarded to students entering first year of a Bachelor of Applied Science degree program in Smith Engineering on the basis of demonstrated financial need and academic achievement.
His other gift to prospective students is a bit of wisdom: when choosing a university, look for a community where you can thrive in addition to a strong academic program.
Originally hailing from Toronto, Sadr considered a few different post-secondary institutions coming out of high school but, after speaking with a few friends, felt that Queen’s stood out for its balanced environment that offered a strong blend of academics with student life.
“Queen’s was one of the few schools that gave me a real university feel,” he recalls. “It had a community energy that just felt right.”
Engineering, too, was a natural choice. Both of Sadr’s parents hold PhDs in science and engineering, and they inspired both Sadr and his sister to pursue engineering. But from the start, he saw engineering as more than a technical career path. “Even if I never practiced as an engineer, I knew the skills would be invaluable anywhere,” he says.
That foresight was important. Living with a mix of engineering, commerce, and economics students during his studies broadened Sadr’s perspective and opened his eyes to ways his skills could be applied in other areas, such as finance.
Thanks to those conversations, Sadr was ready when a unique and interesting opportunity landed in his inbox: an email announcing a new Queen’s program that allowed engineering graduates to transition directly into an MBA program. At the urging of a roommate, Sadr applied. “If I had ignored that email, my life could have been totally different,” he reflects. He was one of just five students accepted into the inaugural cohort.
The program gave him the business grounding to pivot into finance and broaden his career prospects. Upon completing his MBA, Sadr went to work for CIBC as an investment banking analyst, and he remains with the bank today, in an Executive Director capacity.
Beyond academics, what Sadr treasures most about Queen’s is its culture of balance. “It’s a work hard, play hard school,” he says. “When it’s time to focus, everyone is in the library grinding. When exams are done, everyone celebrates together.”