The moment you find out you’re going to receive the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship is a remarkable experience, but it’s not until later that you realize what a pivotal moment it truly is, according to Wesley Finck. Now in his final semester of his electrical engineering degree at UNB, he finds that the scholarship presents ever more opportunities for developing his leadership skills and building a national network of connections he can draw on to start his career.
Since July, Wesley has been the national network development chair for the Schulich Leader Scholarships, serving as an ambassador for the organization to help the Schulich Scholars at 20 Canadian universities network, learn from each other and pursue job opportunities.
“For example, I moderated a webinar panel in January with three Schulich Leader alumni, who discussed their experience with transitioning to grad school. I have also started the Schulich Leader Podcast and hope to encourage members of the Schulich Leader network to contribute episodes of their own,” Wesley explains.
Wesley’s engineering capstone project – a year-long, team-based exercise in new product design – will be a software platform that enables peer-to-peer energy transactions.
“Peer-to-peer energy transactions occur when energy consumers are able to produce their own electricity – for example, with solar panels – and sell it back to the grid, where another consumer may purchase that generated electricity,” says Wesley.
This project is in keeping with Wesley’s future plans, which include completing a master’s program that supports green engineering.
“I hope to work in the clean energy or clean technology industries, with the goal of helping develop and scale technologies that will rapidly decarbonize the global economy,” Wesley says. “It’s leadership like this that keeps UNB at the forefront of technological and social change,” says Paul Mazerolle, UNB’s president and vice chancellor. “With Schulich Leaders such as Wesley in the vanguard of change, there is no limit to what Canadians can accomplish.”
Hear about Wesley’s experience as a Schulich Leader.
