As spring approaches, the graduating class of 2026 is preparing to step off campus for the final time. While the path ahead can be exciting, the current state of the economy and the world leaves others unsure of what the future holds. We caught up with some of them about their plans post-graduation, how they feel about their experience at UW, and any final words of wisdom they want to leave for the UW community.
Graeme Goodwin Berry
4B environment and business student Graeme Goodwin Berry will return to a previous co-op employer in Ottawa over the summer after finishing his degree this term. This fall, he will begin his MBA program at Wilfrid Laurier University, with concentrations in Financial Management for Professionals and Data-Based Business Intelligence.
“I’ve always found the stock market and personal finance so fascinating,” Berry said in an interview with Imprint. During an eight-month coop term two years ago at the Upper Grand District School Board in Guelph, Berry was deciding between studying finance and business for a master’s degree. A senior manager suggested he pursue an MBA, just as AI was growing in popularity. “I love business, AI is coming whether you like it or not, and [I’m also into] financial management. Laurier, I think, did a good job of connecting all three.”
Ultimately, Berry hopes to work in the mining industry, where he sees opportunities for much-needed change: “I don’t think it’s going anywhere, and there are definitely ways to improve it in an environmental way and an efficient way.” When it comes to the intersection of environment and business, Berry says, “the business side of things [is] still quite broad, [where] with a business-focused degree, you can still go down hundreds of paths… if AI takes two, I can go to the next three.”
He credits the dedicated instructors of the environment faculty with tying together what may seem like two disparate fields and approaches. One of the most memorable courses for him was ENBUS 407: Corporate Sustainability Accounting and Reporting, taught by assistant professor Amr ElAlfy. “The professors did a really great job proving the business case … on why the environment is important,” says Berry, which is typically “the toughest part to prove.” Sustainability, says Berry, has become a buzzword that is “thrown around now,” where some may be skeptical of its implementation in the market today. “They think that it’s kind of a fake motive that’s trying to be pushed, but there is truly a business case to it. I thought that was the neatest, coolest thing so far.”
All in all, Berry has enjoyed his experience in his program. “If I were 19 or 18, I would definitely do this program again,” he reflected. While some may perceive a degree in environmental science as a “weakness”, he commented, “it can actually be a special skill, like an ability within certain companies where we can now prove how something that has never been really connected, like environment and business, [can] actually just make things stronger.”
Outside of academics, Berry is a player on the varsity squash team, where he’s found camaraderie with teammates across programs and faculties. “You’re able to do something fun and athletic with your peers [and] go out with the Waterloo logo still surrounding you … I felt that was a really strong complement to my degree,” he said. “That really does just help you absorb the Waterloo experience more.”
Berry adds that finding and maintaining community can be particularly challenging at UW, especially given co-op streams. “People can be on such different rotations, so you won’t know if your friend will be there or not.” On that point, he hopes that UW leadership will do more to create a more open and social culture on campus, even with the need to uphold the university’s reputation as a top institution. He cited how Western University holds regular concerts on campus grounds and larger events that bring students together. “I would like them to adopt more of the social lifestyle of Laurier … I think that would do wonders to people’s mental health, and calmness and clarity. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, but just let us be 19 and 20 and a little wild.”
To fellow students, he advises them to balance academics with other pursuits. “I know everyone says this, but you have to get engaged with the school besides going to office hours, making friends in class and learning the content,” he advises. Berry himself only became more involved in extracurriculars in his last year of undergrad and hopes that others won’t shy away from joining out of fear, especially when it comes to sports and team-based activities: “We’re not professionals; you don’t have to be incredibly good at something to join it.”
Joelah Etti
Joelah Etti is a third-year student in her communication arts degree planning to complete her degree this December. Originally a math student when she came to UW in 2021, she switched majors after a family member’s cancer diagnosis and the additional stress from the program prompted her to re-think her choice.
“I was definitely exploring life and UW when I was in math, whereas here in communications, my identity is a lot more concrete,” she says about the transition into the arts faculty and her current major. Since the switch, she has found more freedom to pursue creative projects both in and outside of class. Etti has been freelancing in graphic design since high school, but has expanded her skillset in university to create short films, Youtube videos, and a documentary currently in progress.
That creative blossoming is one of the biggest points of pride in her time at UW. “One thing I’m really proud of, which is unrelated to school but based in school, is that I started doing a Year in Review magazine so I could review my entire year at UW,” Etti remarked. This year, she hopes to do a special edition documenting her personal top 10 things about Waterloo, spotlighting favorite eateries like Poppy’s Bagels and Oka Sushi.
“I’m [also] really proud of my emergence as a writer, because I wouldn’t have been able to write a magazine if I didn’t start writing at mathNEWS,” says Etti. The low barrier to publication and free pizza on production nights, she recalls, helped get her foot in the door to writing. “Since then I’ve actually started to take my writing seriously,” she recounts.
Aside from personal growth, Etti’s social connections (and misconnections) are also core memories in her time at UW. One of her early co-op terms was at the YW Thrift Boutique in Kitchener. “I owe a lot of who I am to them and I made a lot of friends there,” she said about her experience. She has also forged friendships with fellow members of the UW Film Club. At the same time, Etti won’t miss the stressful experiences from group projects, or the racism and sexism she’s encountered at UW: “If the campus was like 10 per cent less racist against black people, [that] would be great.”
While she hopes to continue working in graphic design after graduation, Etti feels that AI’s disruption of the arts and the poor job market in Canada have hung her future out to dry. “As a Canadian citizen, I feel very cheated at the job market and the economy at large, to the point where I’m considering [that] maybe a move to the UK is actually kind of viable,” she said. Etti has family members in the UK who are willing to house her while she looks for a job, and feels that the graphic design industry across the pond has more opportunities thanks to its larger print industry. “It’s really sad, because I don’t hate Canada … [but] can I even sustain a future here?”
This isn’t the first time Etti has had issues finding employment. Even after completing several coop terms, she was removed from the coop program for not being able to find one last coop position to fulfill requirements. “UW makes itself out to be the ‘best coop program in the world,’ and yet, students like me who literally just needed one more job opportunity … we’re shafted,” she expressed. For now, Etti hopes to continue networking and building professional connections to find employment after graduation. “I feel really upset, but I also know that I’m gonna make it … it’s not that bad, but no one should have to go through all this.”
In the end, Etti’s biggest takeaway from her time at UW is the confidence to follow her own North Star, even in the face of external adversity. “Not everyone is going to like you for whatever reason … people are just jerks sometimes, but you just got to roll with it.” Etti also emphasized the importance of doing so even when feeling internal pressure to fit into a box. “You have to be yourself everywhere you go … you can only be you, and life is a lot better once you fully recognize that,” she stressed.
Last but not least, she encourages other students to make the most of their time at university outside of class: “Don’t live your life only focused on school. You’re only here for a short time …[so] live your life to the fullest while you can.”
Soumya Menon
Fourth year math student Soumya Menon will be finishing her degree in applied mathematics this term, with a specialization in scientific computing and scientific machine learning. She is considering graduate studies but is prioritizing the post-graduation job search, ideally a position in science-adjacent machine learning.
Menon started at UW as an honours physics student in the faculty of science, before changing her program to mathematical physics. She then switched faculties and entered the BMath mathematical physics program, staying for a year before finally landing in applied math in fall 2025. When Menon added her specialization to her degree, she had already taken most of the required courses out of interest. “I was changing my major quite a couple of times, but it was changing just the name … I wasn’t changing what I was doing,” she clarifies, having jumped across programs and faculties mostly when access to preferred courses was limited by her program and faculty.
Outside of the classroom, Menon has done coops in computational genomics, radiation science, and AI; the latter two were with the National Research Council Canada. “I think my coops really motivated me to want to get into industry,” she recounts, “because I enjoy those environments. They showed me that there is an intersection of science, computer science and technology that I can work in and get paid a livable wage … that was really meaningful to me.”
The work that she takes the greatest pride in, however, is community engagement, advocacy, and leadership. Menon was a member of SciSoc and FemPhys before helping organize PHYS10, a non-credit course with weekly seminars for science students. She has also designed logos, merchandise and marketing material for the Women of Waterloo events and Women in Mathematics (WiM)’s Navigating Your Career panel. Menon also co-led the NASA Space Apps hackathon last year, hoping to provide an avenue for science students interested in tech who wanted to challenge themselves.
“I’m proud of the people I’ve worked with [and] of the work I’ve put into things. But [those are] definitely not something I tie with the university name,” she clarifies. New policies and changes in the past five years have deeply affected students and the campus community, says Menon. “It’s really hard to feel a sense of belonging to the institution when they’re so differently aligned in values from you … that’s [a] strong reason why I was so much more active in finding community with people here than necessarily feeling a sense of pride.”
With that in mind, Menon believes that more should be done to bridge gaps between different faculties. “A criticism I have of the way we look at STEM in Waterloo … [is that] we really don’t stress critical consumption of science and technology news and developments while also valuing the humanities and arts in our considerations here,” she commented. As someone with a foot in arts and STEM, she and other students with interdisciplinary interests see “[these] communities [set] against each other because of where development is going in technology.”
Her studies are ending, but with the current job market, recent world events and the barriers she faces as an international student, the road ahead is unclear. “I don’t think I’ve been in a situation where I’m this uncertain about what the rest of the year will look like,” she confessed. Her coop in AI research made her realize her disinterest and disillusionment in the current trajectory of AI and the tech industry at large, especially with large amounts of capital invested in said direction. “It seems like all of these paths in my life have their own agendas right now … it’s not a nice feeling,” Menon commented. “At the same time, academia is also something I’m not really confident about.”
For students still grinding through school, she emphasizes the need to be conscious of where they invest time and energy, especially in ways that align with their values. “[UW] is a place where your worth feels challenged constantly. And it’s true that there will never be enough time to do everything you want to do,” she stated. “Figuring out what works for you and not working against [yourself] is probably the best thing you could do at university.”
She encourages students to get involved with local advocacy and activist groups off campus: “It’s really important to make community there, because as we fight for things that are important to us, it’s really important that it’s sustainable for us as well.”
Lastly, Menon also puts out a call to action for students to make their voices and presence count, as UW continues to go through internal and external changes. “When students have shown up and made their voices heard, we have gotten actionable changes. It’s important that we continue to do that; our strength is in numbers at the end of the day.”
