On Episode 10 of SAF Ready the Podcast, host Sam welcomes Michelle, a second-year Sustainability and Financial Management (SFM) student from the School of Accounting and Finance.
Watch to find out what led Michelle to SFM, her decision-making process, and how she hopes to impact the environment and inspire others to balance profit and purpose in their fields.
Learn more about the SFM undergraduate program: https://bit.ly/3Rvh0zH
Talk with students on Unibuddy!
On Episode 10 of SAF Ready the Podcast, host Sam welcomes Michelle, a second-year Sustainability and Financial Management (SFM) student from the School of Accounting and Finance.
Watch to find out what led Michelle to SFM, her decision-making process, and how she hopes to impact the environment and inspire others to balance profit and purpose in their fields.
Learn more about the SFM undergraduate program: https://bit.ly/3Rvh0zH
Talk with students on Unibuddy!
Hi everyone and welcome to SAF Ready the Podcast here at the University of Waterloo. On this podcast, we'll have a variety of guest students, faculty and staff to let you in on all that school of the kind of finance has to offer. We want to ensure that you're hearing everything that you want to know about the School of Accounting and Finance. So after listening to episodes, feel free to DM us on our variety of social chains or send us an email at saf@uwaterloo.ca with any more questions, topics or people that you want to hear from. Tune in soon to our next episode on Buzzsprout, Spotify and YouTube. Honestly, the majority of platforms you'll be able to find us today. We have Michelle, and she's going to be talking a lot about her decision process when deciding SFM was the right fit for her. Thank you so much for coming in, Michelle. Thank you for having me. Oh my goodness. Alrighty. So what is your name? Your program? I mean, you already kind of did your name. Yeah. So what is your program and your year? Well, I'll say my name again. I'm Michelle. I am in the Sustainability and Financial Management program, and I'm in my 2A term. 2A term, woooo! Just came out for your first co op Ta-da first? No, I actually I had actually one summer and that's the last summer I'll ever get. Oh I know that was nice, but I spent it working. Working girl we love making moves ten out of ten. Yeah. So what has been your favourite part about your program so far? Definitely how small the program is. Yeah, it's such a tight knit community because there's only 36 people. Oh yeah. Your cohorts kind of small. Yeah. Even the first year cohort is really small as well. Yeah, but like, everyone knows each other, like, you know, on a name basis and you know, you know, like fun facts about people as well. So it's really nice. I love it! So yeah, just kind of diving into what made you decide to do SFM. What was kind of like your decision process and who you were? Were you apart of the first cohort to come through or the second? I want to say the second, like there's like, you applied for the program. I applied for the program. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just kind of like for the reason I ask is for students who are curious, our first, cohort that applied, they were kind of they originally were accepted to AFM and they were approached about this new program. So you're the first time where we, like, went through the entire application process like normal. Okay. Gotcha, gotcha. I actually applied for SFM. Yeah, okay, I gotcha. Okay. So what made you decide to apply to the program? Well, I actually didn't really know about anything about the program. Okay. When I was entering what I wanted to, like rank for, for the Ontario universities, my mom actually was like, wow, Michelle, this is an interesting program. I never heard of it, so I did apply for it. Yeah. I never really expected it to apply for it, but then I realized that it actually kind of fit with what I like. Yeah, so I scuba dive. Really? Yeah, I do, I love that I've done it once and it was like the craziest experience ever. Really. Oh my God, it's a great I love scuba diving research seeing the little fishes. Oh I love the fish I know save the world. Yes. So basically save the world. I was underwater and I saw so much trash everywhere. Like I was diving in like the Asian countries, like the ones that are really touristy and, you know, lots of trash from that. And I saw that and I was like, wow, how do we prevent this from happening? I guess. And then, well, I want to see how I could apply that in a business sense. Yeah. So that's why I was like, okay, I'm kind of interested in accounting and I'm interested in the environment, so why not do sustainability and financial management? Yeah, that's so cool. I love that. Like kind of like seeing what the world has been at at this level is kind of inspired you to move forward and you're picking your program. That's really cool. And we want to save the fishes. Yeah, I know I've been seeing a lot of those really cool projects. I'm like diving on the boat, totally diluting. But, I love the, the cool programs that they have for starting to like businesses that are trying to clean out the ocean. Have you seen that one? They're like doing that big thing where they're trying to clear out the specific the Pacific trash. Oh yeah. Like on the surface level, yeah. Oh, I've seen that before. Like that big that big like net thing. Yeah yeah yeah I think that's interesting. Yeah. And like even when I go down when I scuba dive. So I still pick up trash even though I'm not really supposed to because I don't want the right material. I mean, I don't want to go in the fish's body. Yeah, yeah. Well, we love that. But be safe always. So, what was your thought process when figuring out where to apply, like, school wise and, like, what for and things like that? I know you kind of dove into a little bit about what you were interested in saving, like be more environmentally and sustainably conscious, but kind of how was it? Did you go to like Ontario University Fair? Did you kind of do all those kinds of things? Like what kind of pushed you to be a part of it? I actually didn't go to any of the fairs, which I really regret. Not going to. Yeah, because I kind of just applied to, like, business programs that I knew off the top of my head. Okay. Gotcha. So I was just thinking of like, what's what's there? Like, oh, Waterloo is really good. Oh, you know, Western Ivey is good, too. like, I only applied to four programs in the end. Okay. Gotcha. So I was like, oh, hopefully someone will take me. So I was like, okay, we're good guys. We got a pretty good, good. But I really wish I went to like open houses. Because I think like I had no idea kind of what Waterloo really was like. But I really like it now. So you know, just good. Right. It was like a good good risk. Good risk, good risk. Like my sister goes here and she says that like it's, it's nice because like, it's a really not small campus, but like, it's not like a huge campus. Yeah. Like you're not like trekking a million years to get to your next class. Yeah. Like when there's ten minutes in, like between classes. Like I'm not like sprinting. Like I can, I can have, like, a nice little brisk walk, but, you know, I'm not like running. Running. Yeah. You're just taking the time. Getting get, you know, get your footing. Yeah, yeah that's cool. So you kind of did you kind of know what you wanted to do for a career when you were applying. No you didn't. Okay. So has the program so far kind of helped you steer in the direction of what you kind of want to do with your life when you're. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. I honestly, when I came into Waterloo, I had kind of just like the mindset of let's get an accounting job. Like, let's not really focus too much on the sustainability aspect of it. And but then the more that I actually explored in the courses that I took, yeah, they kind of encouraged me to apply to more like, you know, sustainability jobs. And I did land one for my first co-op. So I was really happy because I really want to apply, you know what I'm actually learning in school. Yeah. And to do something that's related to my program. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So are you thinking more of the CPA route or CFA? Like are you kind of I'm going to do the CPA route. Okay. Nice. So influenced by my dad. Yeah. He’s a CPA. Oh yeah I gotcha gotcha. Yeah. So for students who don't know SFM is one of the programs. There's the four of our five programs you can choose to do CPA or CFA. So SFM is one of them where you can dive into either one and you just kind of pick the specialization that fits it. but yeah, that's really cool. I love that. and you're kind of going through the process of your first time applying to co-op. So kind of how did you go through that? You said you kind of made some connections, like how did you do that? Like, I feel like students always want to know how they get their co-op jobs. Networking. It's very important, I tell you, that go to events where all, like the companies come together and talk to the representatives and like set up coffee chats. I think that is really important. Like people aren't going to remember you kind of by your name. I feel like you need to reach out more than just saying like than just chatting for them with like 20 minutes. You need to like have a have more of a one on one conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. I definitely had a lot of those. and I think that that helped me get my co-op job for next term for sure. Yeah, absolutely. So so you're doing like AOJ? Like arrange my own job. Yes. Yes yes. Sorry. I know I hear so many acronyms. I'm learning with everything. So it's like AOJ. Yeah I know, arrange your own job. Sounds like OJ. Like orange juice. Oh my God, too good. Orange juice yes? Yeah. So there's orange juice job. Oh. But, Yeah. So, so you do you’re doing AOJ? Yeah. they already did it for me, so I don't actually have to fill out the whole form and everything. So I got it in the summer, so. Oh, wonderful. Thank God I don't have to do it. Yeah, yeah, I know it's a bit of a process, but that is a possibility for students who, if you are interested in doing arrange your job, you can do that. I think that students know it's that a good, good thing to know if they want to explore like personal networking opportunities. I think it's totally normal to a lot of people in like in SAF like arrange their own job, because I know a lot of people were applying in the summer, in the spring. So yeah, it's not it's not weird that. Yeah, yeah, if you have connection, utilize it for sure. That's what I'm saying. So kind of just to wrap up, so for students who are interested in your program, how would you kind of summarize it for them and why do you think they should apply? Take your time. No stress. You have a timer. Oh, shoot. No, you have 30s. No. Oh no no I'm kidding. Take your time. Take your time. Definitely. Sustainability is a growing field. You're seeing all these big companies trying to put the word sustainability somewhere, their companies. So, you know, stakeholders are like, oh, let's invest in there. So there's definitely a lot of job opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. If you are looking to apply to SFM, make sure that you're actually have some type of, what's it called, passion for the environment. Yeah. Because I feel like if you don't then you might not find the courses really on track of what you want to learn. Yeah. but yeah, definitely, it's a great space to explore. I didn't know what I was really going into because it was such a new program, but I highly enjoyed my first year and my second year going, okay, yeah, I know, it's like coming back from being on a off term is always a challenge. I think or work term is always a challenge, but I'm glad to see that you're kind of getting back into the groove of things. Yeah, honestly, I think SFM is a great program, and if you're looking for a tight knit community to like to like, it's so easy to make friends in the in the community. I know I was like, I was like when I was talking to Ethan, he was saying that like, oh, you guys are pretty on like first name basis a lot with like, oh yeah, friends in different years and stuff, which is pretty cool. You know, everyone in the community, like I know literally all the upper years, which there's only 13. So I mean, it's not that many, but it's nice. It's a good community and it's good also for networking. Yeah. Like a support because like especially because it is such a new program like the networking is not only for the people who are in industry, but people that you're in upper or lower years with because you never know who you're gonna be working with, working for, working under. Yeah. So it's good to make those connections right off the bat even when you're in school. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming in today, Michelle, for having me to learn more about you. And, are you on Unibuddy? I am on Unibuddy. Okay. So, students, if you want to talk to Michelle, like, one on one, definitely hit up Unibuddy. She'll happily, happily chat with you. and if you have any other questions, please feel free to send us an email or reach out if you have any questions for Michelle, I'll happily direct them to her. But, thank you so much for coming in and paying attention and have a great rest of your day. Thank you. You too.