Meet Laney Beausoleil, a Mathematical Science [1] student who is finishing up her 4th year at the University of Guelph. As an involved student on campus, Laney worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Math and Stats Learning Centre [2] and as a Residence Assistant in Prairie and Lennox-Addington. When asked why she chose the U of G Laney shared, “I had been to campus a few times already seeing friends and I loved the intricate buildings, the vibrant campus community, and the unique math program with several different specialization options.”

A feature of the Mathematical Science program is that students can pick a focus and an emphasis, which allows them to explore other disciplines. Laney’s focus is on the statistics stream, with an emphasis on computer science. “The best part is being able to incorporate computer science into my statistics work, it gave me a new outlook on how math and stats is applicable in the real world,” Laney said.

Throughout her time here, Laney has been able to develop strong relationships with her professors. She mentioned that the Orientation Week event “Profs are people too” specifically helped connect with her professors in first year. As a residence assistant, she encouraged the first-year students in her community to attend it as well. Laney has appreciated how “personable and available” the faculty have been and stated that “it has really convinced me that I made the right decision coming to Guelph.” Laney also enjoyed the opportunity to teach. Her favourite part about being a TA at the Math and Stats Learning Centre was seeing students leave more confident than when they showed up, and how tutoring others helped improve upon her own knowledge of statistics.

Laney has also joined several student clubs during her undergraduate degree, such as the ASL (American Sign Language) Club, Horticulture Club, the Math & Stats Club [4], and the Machine Learning and Algorithmic Trading Club. The ASL Club [5] meets once a week to learn and practice ASL, which is a valuable life skill. “It’s a great opportunity to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion and make campus more accessible,” she shared. She got to meet people from different programs/disciplines in the Horticulture Club [6], where she participated in propagation workshops and got to take home a variety of plants.

This summer, Laney is taking her final undergraduate course at the University of Guelph in preparation for her master’s degree in September. She is also making a website of everything she has learned in her undergraduate, so she can use it as an archive and teaching aid as a TA during her master’s degree. Laney shared, “I’m really looking forward to doing my master’s degree in Applied Statistics and Artificial Intelligence with Professor Tony Desmond [7] later this year. There is so much more to learn through researching and applying AI to statistics. It also means I get to spend a little more time at the University of Guelph.”