Bilingual engineer finds a world of opportunity
One of Valérie Proulx’s defining qualities is her love of a good challenge. True to form, the Francophone from Gatineau, Quebec, chose the University’s electrical engineering program with the added goal of learning English along the way. She proved more than equal to the task, making the Dean’s Honour List every year, while completing half her courses in English and the other half in French.
“The ability to study in both English and French is what really attracted me to the University of Ottawa,” says Proulx. “The great thing about doing my co-op engineering degree in both languages is that it provided me with more options at school and way more opportunities in the workforce.”
After graduating with a specialty in telecommunications, Proulx accepted a project- management position with Bell Canada in Toronto, where her bilingualism proved a real asset. She gained valuable experience at Bell before moving on to bigger project- management challenges with international mining giant Vale Inco, a company eager to put Proulx’s engineering and language skills to work in the global marketplace.
Proulx, who served as project manager of a successful virtual company founded by electrical engineering students for a fourth-year design project, credits the Faculty of Engineering’s at once rigorous and entrepreneurial approach for helping her to achieve early career success in the competitive setting of international business.
“The engineering program teaches students how to learn and how to think quickly on their feet, giving them the practical skills required to adapt to problems and move forward,” says Proulx, the University of Ottawa’s 2006 Go Eng Girl representative and the Faculty of Engineering’s 2007 Kipling Award winner for scholarship, leadership and service to the engineering and university communities.
So what are Proulx’s goals? Building her business-management and leadership skills, eventually obtaining an MBA, and working her way up to a senior management position.
Ambitious? Yes, but Valérie Proulx is clearly up to the challenge.
By Greg Higgins
Published: March 2009