Caroline Zhang

I'm a first year Architecture student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. When I first came to university, I was actually in the Faculty of Science with an undeclared major, as I was interested in everything and could not decide which direction to go in. Then, upon taking and greatly enjoying a computer science class, I chose to pursue the subject as my degree. After a year of studying computer science, although I still found it interesting, I came to realize that it was not meant for me. Thus, I decided to transfer into architecture, as it had the perfect combination of creativity, art, design, math, science, physics, and engineering for me.

I grew up loving art; taking drawing, oil painting, watercolor, and digital painting lessons, and always designing t-shirt logos, theatre posters, and window and wall murals. I had a passion for creating and making things by hand, always using school projects as a chance to create and design something new. While I had this super artistic side of me, there was also this other side that adored math. My passion for math really began when I decided to try the math club in middle school. I immediately fell in love with the challenge presented by the word problems, and I went on to continue competing in Math Team competitions throughout high school. So with architecture, I don't have to choose between these two sides of me, I am lucky enough to be able to do both, and when I began the architecture program at McGill, I immediately knew it was the right fit for me. I felt right at home.

Although I'm no longer pursuing computer science as my major, I'm not abandoning the field completely. I'm continuing to study the subject as my minor, and after conducting a summer research project on computational design and computer graphics, I'm interested in the role that computer science plays in architecture. It is a huge up-and-coming field in architecture and is creating tremendous new possibilities for design.

Outside of architecture and computer science, I greatly enjoy knitting, crocheting, and doing sudoku and jigsaw puzzles in my free time. Taking time to volunteer and give back to the community is always very important to me as well. I currently volunteer at F.A.C.E. elementary school, tutoring a student in Math every week, and I help out with food preparation for Santropol Roulant's Meals-on-Wheels Program, which is dedicated to providing meals to elderly and physically disabled people in Montreal. And last but definitely not least, I am a huge cat lover!!