Chennoa Tracey, Engineer-in-Training
I’m originally from the village of Loon Lake, Sask. It was here that I grew up fishing, riding quads and loving the outdoors on the farms of friends.
A number of experiences sparked my interest in engineering. I had always loved the creative aspect of building and designing things. I had a number of projects growing up, such as LEGO creations, intricate snow forts, and eventually helping with changing car or quad parts.
I was the maintenance summer student for a couple years where I was able to hop onto a few machines, such as skid steers and ride-on mowers, and operate the garbage truck. That experience allowed me to learn some more hands-on skills, which I think made me more inclined to choose mechanical engineering later on in life. I also have two relatives that I look up to enter the field of engineering and I believed that if engineering is what they chose, it must be worth choosing.
As much as I enjoyed these things at the time, I thought that I would be in the field of biology or architecture instead of engineering. While I was in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan for two years, I found out really quickly that I was more drawn to the sciences as opposed to humanities and it appeared to be more lucrative, too. In those two years, I completed all of my non-engineering electives which gave me time to be very involved in the student groups.
I was in the College of Engineering from 2014 to 2018. At the end of my first year of engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, I chose mechanical engineering as my discipline. It had all of the cool topics and, in my heavily biased opinion, the best professors.
Engineering was a challenging degree but only because studying was just one part of the experience. I spent just as much time studying as I was busy with the Saskatoon Engineering Students’ Society, Huskie Formula Racing (the university’s race car team), The Sheaf (the campus newspaper), the Indigenous Students’ Union and travelling across the country for engineering conferences and competitions.
All of these experiences together culminated into a great university experience that I am grateful to have had, even with the added self-induced stress of doing well while doing so much.
I have been gaining engineering experience since I was a student. I had the opportunity of getting into an Indigenous mentorship program before my last year of being in the College of Engineering. In this student position, I helped with vibration analysis, machine design and dipped my toes in the world of additive manufacturing which I continued after obtaining my degree. From there, I transitioned into a more technical consulting role in 2019 where I learned more about pipe stress analysis which was a great new asset to my knowledge base. But I found I lost some passion doing technical work exclusively.
At the beginning of this year, a short-term opportunity to work out of the country as a field engineer came up and I was off to the U.S. to learn firsthand about induced polarization surveys with geoscientists in the world of mineral exploration. It was a refreshing switch to be out of an office setting to a field setting.
Now I get the best of both worlds with Great Plains Contracting. I am co-ordinating construction projects, which ties together my love for being out in the field, representing and promoting Indigenous people in STEM fields, and getting a balance of both hard technical and soft-skill roles.
I became an Engineer-in-Training in August 2018 and I am looking forward to the day I obtain my professional engineer designation.
Family has always been a huge support for whatever endeavour I tried to achieve. Most notably though were my work mentors and university professors. There are a lot of really smart people in all engineering fields and I’ve been lucky to have worked with some very smart and caring people. The mentors I have had over the years have been the highlight of each work experience.
They always have gone above and beyond to ensure I understood concepts. They laid the foundation of how I can be a good role model for others, whether it is other females or Indigenous people considering STEM. One of the best lessons I learned is that if you want something enough you will find a way to make it happen, whether that is through asking for help from others, or being creative and addressing whatever barriers exist.
I also feel I have had very cool opportunities open from being involved outside of work that are engineering adjacent such APEGS subcommittees and the Canadian Indigenous Science and Engineering Society (.caISES) professional chapters and conferences. I am very much a people person and really appreciate the knowledge shared by others during my young career.
Over the last few years, I have really enjoyed staying fit through aerial silks classes. Now that the weather is a little cooler I’ve enjoyed jogging with my two husky malamutes, Argo and Aurora. Otherwise, I am usually found riding my CBR (a sports bike) to get ice cream or a cup of tea at a locally owned cafe. Once the pandemic calms down a bit more I want to get travelling back in my schedule, too. My top three places I want to see next are Croatia, Turkey and Iceland. I’m often very busy, but that’s how I like it.