Hello. my name is Rohit Sharma. I am from Delta, British Columbia, and currently, I am a 1st year Engineering Transition student here at Capilano. The photo above is from when I graduated high school, a few hours before I gave my valedictorian speech to be exact.

My hope, by studying in the transition program here at Capilano, is to be better prepared for the academic stress that I will go through on my way to being an engineer. So far, I have had to work on managing my time far better than I ever had to in high school, which has proved to be an important lesson, and I am grateful I have learned it so early in my post secondary career.

I have wanted to be an engineer for as long as I can remember. Even as a small child I was always intrigued by the way the constructs of the world around me operated. What was it about buildings that let them tower above the world like little mountains? How could a bridge hold so much weight while stretched over an entire river, never once showing a hint of strain? What were the hidden secrets that let planes fly? These were the questions that filled my head for years, long before I ever started to learn about any of the science behind them. That is why I want to be an engineer. Now I know the basics of how all of these things work, but I want to know more. How do people look at the first blueprint of an idea of a building, and immediately know where to place a support column, or a support beam across the roof? How do they go from hearing the width of a body of water, the average amount of traffic expected to go across it, and somehow know exactly what type of design strategy to use, with the only limitation on their ingenuity being the budget for the project? How does one take something that weighs hundreds, if not thousands of tonnes, use nothing more than basic principals of fluid dynamics, and make it fly as effortlessly as if it belonged in the sky? These are the types of questions that fill my head now. These are the thoughts that remind me of why I want to be an engineer, not just to understand how the world around me works, but to build more of it.

As I said, I have wanted to be an engineer my whole life, but it’s not my only passion. Growing up I was always getting involved in philanthropic work all over my community. In elementary school I would volunteer at the food bank with the the other kids in my class, I would raise funds to help build schools in different countries, and too help the local homeless population, but when I really started to make a big difference was when I was in high school. In high school I was a member of the school’s humanitarian club, eventually becoming an executive member. While part of the humanitarian club, known as “The Solutions Society,” I helped organize multiple fundraisers. Everything from bake sales for the food bank, teachers vs seniors games for school supplies, and obstacle courses to help build wells for villages in Africa, I was always spending time after school with my fellow executives, planning for our next event, or training the people that would be taking over next year.

Another passion I have is public speaking. This manifested itself differently throughout the years. In elementary school, students would occasionally be given the chance to run small assemblies, and I would always jump at the chance. As I got older, I went from speaking at assemblies to speaking at debate competitions with my friends, to Model United Nations conferences where we discussed everything from the legitimacy of pineapple on pizza, to the true need for weapons of mass destruction, to a school talent show, and finally, my valedictorian speech. So far, outside of in-class discussion, I have not had a chance to pursue any form of public speaking during my first semester here at Capilano, I hope I will be able to indulge in it eventually.