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It’s been a storybook tale of Maritime hospitality for chemical engineering graduand Houda El Hajjaoui. Her journey—from international student to co-op student to permanent employee at McCain Foods, all before completing her degree—has given New Brunswick a special place in her heart.

“It felt like being welcomed into a family,” she said of her new position as a process engineer at McCain.

El Hajjaoui came to the University of New Brunswick (UNB) from Morocco with aspirations of learning more about nuclear engineering, which she did, specializing in that rigorous field during her degree. But life threw her a curveball during her four-year program, leading her down a path she’s even more excited about.

“I was talking with my first co-op supervisor at a company called Enertrak; he started his career in the frozen food industry. And that's when I was like, ‘Whoa, there's a whole bigger industry that I can look into,’” she said.

El Hajjaoui had dipped her toes into the food processing world with an eight-month co-op stint at Pepsi, but it was her final placement where she unexpectedly found her new career path, and a warm embrace from her work community.

“I wasn't really planning to work in the summer of 2023,” she recalled. “But I saw the McCain post up on the UNB co-op portal, and it seemed very interesting.

“I hadn't really thought about R&D [research and development] but the way it was described in the co-op posting, talking about pilot projects, innovation and creativity, that caught my attention.”

Her curiosity piqued, El Hajjaoui decided to go for it and a week later was called in for an interview. Soon thereafter, she was offered the placement. El Hajjaoui really enjoyed the projects she got to work on and described her manager at McCain as an amazing mentor.

“I just had fun overall! I think that kind of shaped my decision down the line as well.”

When the opportunity to work at McCain permanently arose, she knew she wanted to take it.

She said the path UNB offered her, from student, to co-op, to employee even before having graduated, took some of the pressure off her final year.

“I was in the very fortunate position of having gotten the job very early on in the year, like in September, so I was able to focus on school and on my courses.”

Building on the skills she established during her co-op terms, El Hajjaoui’s position, which starts this summer, will have her working with food scientists to improve processes and production for new products. It involves lab work, collaboration and research.

International travel is also a part of the job, where she will be working with teams based in the United Kingdom and potentially other parts of Europe.

Racking up the air miles has been part of her life since leaving Morocco to study at UNB. She is grateful that her family has grown to embrace her new home—welcoming New Brunswick and the opportunities in affords. “My youngest brother is at UNB. He’s just finishing his first year of engineering,” she said with a smile.

El Hajjaoui said her mother is very excited to now have two reasons to visit the picturesque province.

“She loves New Brunswick! It’s so green!”