UNB master's graduate sees world of opportunity
Author: Alex Graham
Posted on May 17, 2024
Category: UNB Fredericton
Sarojini Sharon Kennedy is graduating with a master’s in computer science, but she says the experience of getting the degree has been so much more than an academic achievement.
“I felt like a lost puppy,” she said remembering the start of her 18-month journey as an international student at the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus.
She faced the same obstacles of cooking, finances, and being on her own away from family, that many students face, in addition to the challenges of being in a new country.
“Luckily, I found a close group of friends who became my rock, helping me through the ups and downs.”
Those friends, also from the same part of India that Kennedy was from, provided comfort and support as they navigated through learning to live on their own, and being in a new place, together.
“We were very supportive of each other,” she says of her tight knit group of friends that were in the same computer science program as her. “We used to go to all these events together so we wouldn’t get too stressed about assignments and the workload at university. We’d have evening chai together and hang out and get all the stress out. It brought us even closer.”
Coursework and co-op opportunities at UNB also revealed the potential for different career paths that lay before her.
“Developing and coding isn’t really my thing, but playing around with data is something I would love to do, so I found my niche,” she said.
She also learned a lot from artificial intelligence, data analysis courses that was part of the program, as it opened her eyes to other possibilities to apply what she had learned.
A co-op placement as a student content creator for the International Student Advisor’s Office also opened up a new world of possibilities for Kennedy.
“I really enjoyed the planning, being a peer advisor for the incoming students that semester. It was a really good experience,” she said.
Kennedy has already found a position putting her data analysis skills to use, working at the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT) at UNB.
“I see it all happened for a reason,” she says of her academic journey. “Today, as I stand on the brink of graduation, I'm thrilled to embark on my career as a data analyst, ready to dive into the next chapter with enthusiasm and newfound purpose.”