BY APARNA MOHAN (EDITOR)

Obtaining an engineering degree in and of itself is no small feat. As anyone who received their Iron Ring over the weekend will tell you, the journey is fraught with incomparable challenges and involves substantial sacrifices. Being successful in engineering, as professors and administrators implore from day 1, involves a careful re-evaluation of your lifestyle to accommodate the hours required to complete homework assignments, design projects, technical papers, presentations, and prepare for quizzes, midterms and final exams. Between that and catering to your own personal needs, there just aren’t enough hours. Studying engineering comes down to being more than a full time job. 

Engineering students come from all walks of life and find ways to balance the undoubtedly intensive course load according to their own values and priorities. An exceptional number manage to squeeze in things like leadership positions, volunteering, outreach and other extracurricular involvements. There are still others who manage to balance a commitment as time intensive as engineering with another: being a varsity athlete.

Enter Jeffrey Walton – an Industrial Engineering student finishing up his second year who is also an accomplished member of Dalhousie’s Varsity Volleyball team. Walton was kind enough to sit down with the Sextant to explain how he does it. 

Walton hails from Sudbury, Ontario and says he’d already been playing volleyball back in high school when he received a recruitment offer from Dalhousie University. Walton ultimately accepted Dal’s offer over others being drawn to the city of Halifax and Dalhousie’s engineering program. He shares that during his recruitment visit, he was able to meet with professors and administrators who helped him plan out his degree to be more accommodating of his varsity commitment which currently sees him at practice 6 days a week for 3 to 4 hours each without even accounting for travel and games. He opted for the plan generally recommended to athletes in engineering: 4 courses a semester till the end of third year engineering and then transitioning into a full course load for the final two years.

This reduced course load helped him transition into university immensely and he also appreciated being a part of such a tight-knit community and support network from day 1 of his degree which allowed him to seek advice and guidance about the years to come. Walton also made the wise decision of purchasing a meal plan while still living off campus in order to have one less time commitment.

Walton shares that his overall experience of balancing academics with volleyball has been positive and that professors have been supportive about shifting assignment deadlines and midterm write-ups to accommodate travelling for games. “Communication is really important,” he shares. “You have to introduce yourself early on in the semester - like the first week of classes - so that they know you’re a varsity athlete.” As well, he shares that the Black & Gold club – a Dalhousie alumni network committed to supporting student athletes’ success in and out of the classroom – funds 10 free hours of tutoring per athlete per semester. Athletes are free to make use of this and tap into any unused hours from fellow athletes to supplement their academics. This resource has also been of significant help to Walton. 

Beyond the extraordinary balancing act of studying engineering as a varsity athlete, Walton still finds time to give back to the community by sitting on the Athletic Council as a volleyball rep and helping organize events such as fundraisers and community engagement activities. As well, Walton says he maintains a healthy social life but has learned to be disciplined about agreeing to social events when he has work to do for school. Ultimately, Walton strives to get the most out of his university experience and manages to balance careful planning with a laidback can-do attitude that almost makes it look easy.