Alumnus well prepared for University and beyond
Redeemer alumnus, Luke Steiginga, received a Governor General’s Medal at his convocation from Carleton University. Luke studied Biomedical Engineering and received top marks in his class. He acknowledges the role his high school played in helping him achieve academic excellence. (See full article in the Carleton Now online newsletter.)
“I found Redeemer had prepared me quite well for University,” says Steiginga. “The tests and the lab reports were similar to what I encountered at Carleton. When I started my program at Carleton, other students seemed to have a lot of trouble doing well on their lab reports. However, I found them straightforward and did quite well on them simply by writing them as I would have at Redeemer.” He notes that other students expected the test questions to be exactly the same as they were shown in class. “At Redeemer, most of the teachers would teach you the process you should go through to solve a question and would go through some examples in class. However, the questions on the tests would require you to use what you had learned in class to solve a new problem you hadn’t necessarily seen before,” states Steiginga. “This helped me the most and allowed me to become a better problem solver.”
Steiginga appreciated the teachers at Redeemer. He says, “they set up their courses so that they teach you valuable skills and ways of doing things that can be applied in University.” He also valued the extra assistance that teachers would provide. “If I ever wanted a concept further explained, all I would need to do was ask and I would get it. The teachers always tried to help me succeed.”
Being recognized by the Governor General, “was a great experience” acknowledges Steiginga. Now he looks forward to his contract job in the automotive and surface transportation division at the National Research Council. He’ll be working in the rail group to help develop technologies to improve the safety and efficiency of the rail system in Canada and worldwide.