GRADUATING GRADUATE

Samantha Huang '17 walked across the LFA stage in June, 2017. The Master of Ceremonies read, as Sami gave Mrs. Little a hug and posed for photos: "Sami was on the Honour Roll every year. She played on LFA's volleyball teams in Grades 8, 10 and 12. Her club participation included membership in Pro-Life, Model UN, the

British Columbia." With such an impressive high school resume, it was unsurprising Sami was off to Sauder.

Business, as it turns out, does not really do justice to what Sami ended up doing. Though accepted to Sauder, it was not until September, at an orientation event, that she first heard about her program, which is a combined major in Business and Computer Science (BUCS).

It was, from the start, a great fit. She immediately loved her computer science courses and found her way into the co-op program, where she worked with a couple of small to mid-sized technology companies.

Sami has just graduated from UBC and has already landed her first job. Later this summer she will be re-locating to Seattle to work for Microsoft. The opportunity is no small feat: Sami applied through their public job board and was successful through several rounds of interviews. The interviews included both behavioural and technical know-how. Just preparing for the interviews was hard work.

Officials Club and LFA's STEAM Club. Sami is planning to study Business at the University of

The immediate appeal of the BUCS program was how it was described to the new students. Sami remembers them saying, "it's a great program for students who love problem-solving!" She had done a little bit of programming at LFA and had been part of Mr. Chow's IT courses that had been exposed to the first iterations of our LFA STEAM lab. More importantly, Sami loves puzzles. It all added up to an application. Sami was taking a chance. Not only do you specialize with BUCS first year (most Business students specialize after second year), but Sami notes that the program is very male-dominant. Sami muses that, "the labour pool demographic is not very balanced." She is excited to see more LFA alumnae come through

The prospect of moving to Seattle is exciting. With eight siblings, she's leaving behind a very busy household and merely living alone will be a new experience. Microsoft is also a very big company. Sami notes, "I'm going to be a very small fish in a huge, huge ocean so that is definitely going to be a learning experience! I am very excited though to be working on products that impact and empower billions of people around the world."

After playing on LFA's provincial championship volleyball team in her senior year, volleyball remains a fun social activity for Sami. Playing currently in a league, she's excited to see what options there will be in Seattle.