Award goes to green engineer

Jacob Larsen

Most graduating students can expect a little pomp and circumstance at their convocation ceremony. However, engineering grad Andrea Spector will receive the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award with her degree.

Spector’s award comes after four years of contributions to the Concordia community and involvement in multiple projects. As a co-op student, she worked in Finland and Senegal, as well as two terms closer to home with the City of Westmount and Inspec-Sol.

“It’s great to get experience in your field. It definitely makes you more marketable.”

In the second year of her civil engineering degree she travelled to Senegal with Engineers Without Borders to work in cashew processing, as well as helping to install some water pumps for agricultural use. After returning to Concordia, she collaborated with a team of students in designing a compost facility for Loyola that will process the campus’s kitchen waste.

The winner of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award is named by Senate for exceptional social involvement and community service.
“I was completely surprised,” Spector reports. “Honestly, I had to look it up [the award], because I didn’t know what it was.”

While the award is a rare honour, it is not going to change Andrea’s plans. Like many graduating students, she’s now on the job, training as a field engineer with Kiewit, an international engineering firm. She credits her co-op experience with helping her find work so soon after school.

Along with her focus in civil engineering, Spector completed an option in environmental engineering that allows her to pursue her interests in promoting a healthy environment, both at Concordia and abroad.