Purpose in the details
When most people think about business education, hazardous materials logistics might not come to mind.
But for one 91亚色 spring graduate, developing methods for safely transporting dangerous goods through our communities was a key focus of her degree.
Graduating this week with a master of science in management degree, Reihaneh Mahdavinia says she檚 always been drawn to understanding the inner workings of business.
淚檓 fascinated by how things work behind the scenes, said Ms. Mahdavinia, who is originally from Iran. 淒uring an internship at a logistics company, I saw how a tiny bottleneck in their supply chain caused massive delays. We fixed it with a simple process redesign, and I was amazed at the impact operations can have.
Ms. Mahdavinia focused her thesis on optimizing facility locations and transport networks for hazardous materials an area where small decisions can have huge impacts.
淥ne wrong route can put lives or ecosystems at risk. I wanted to create tools that help businesses and policy-makers make safer, smarter choices.
Finding balance
Ms. Mahdavinia credits the support of two important figures for helping her navigate and complete her program: her husband (who made sure she didn檛 miss too many meals) and her supervisor, Dr. Ginger Ke, a leader in logistics optimization and risk modeling.
淒r. Ke didn檛 just guide my research, she said. 淪he had this incredible balance of rigour and practicality, and she taught me how to think like an operations professional. I owe so much to her patience and wisdom.
淚 want my work to protect people and the planet. Reihaneh Mahdavini
Ms. Mahdavinia says the program wasn檛 without its challenges, particularly when it came to re-learning advanced statistics, but she created a study group with classmates to help her through it.
淲e met at the library every week and just kept going. That support made a huge difference.
Now living in Vancouver, B.C., Ms. Mahdavinia has already landed a job in her field.
She檚 excited to apply her skills in a real-world context, especially in an area with such a strong environmental ethos.
淲hether it檚 through better routing models or risk assessments, I want my work to protect people and the planet.
Though she檚 now on the other side of Canada, Ms. Mahdavinia knows she will never forget the place she called home during her university years.
One image in particular stands out
淲atching the sunrise from Signal Hill after pulling an all-nighter on my thesis. I was exhausted, holding a stale Tim檚 doughnut, but it felt like I檇 really earned that view.