Two candidates are running for president of the Engineering Society (EngSoc), each outlining their own priorities centered on student engagement, advocacy, and structural improvement within the society.
Stephie Leitch and Fin Roberts, both Sci ’27, sat down with The Journal to speak about their platforms and goals.
The EngSoc President serves as the society’s main representative and is responsible for overseeing the Directors of Academics, Professional Development, First-Year Orientation, and External Relations.
Stephie Leitch
A Mechanical Engineering student in the Biomechanics sub stream, Leitch currently serves as EngSoc’s Director of First Year, overseeing a team of five managers and the first-year executive. Her role includes planning events, coordinating involvement opportunities, and acting as liaison between first-year students, faculty, and EngSoc.
Through her time in the role, Leitch said she has developed leadership, adaptability, and communication skills that she believes will translate well for the presidency. She pointed to the need to remain flexible and responsive when overseeing multiple executives with varying needs, including both second-year managers and first-year executive members.
“It has given me a lot of leadership experience and being able to adapt to different people’s needs,” Leitch said.
She also pointed to public speaking and familiarity with EngSoc’s internal processes, including governance and finances, as relevant experience. She highlighted a concrete initiative from her current role: expanding the first-year project coordinator program, which she said more than doubled first-year involvement opportunities compared to previous years.
“The understanding of how to make those things happen is a skill as well,” she said.
Her campaign is built around three pillars: support, engagement, and student empowerment. Under her support pillar, Leitch proposed formally connecting engineering students with existing resources offered by the AMS, faculty societies, and the University, rather than duplicating services within EngSoc.
Improving communication between EngSoc and students is central to Leitch’s engagement pillar. While she said mass e-mails and Instagram remain important tools, she also noted they can contribute to information overload. To address this, she proposed increasing in-person outreach through discipline representatives and directors, improving leadership visibility and expanding short-form video content.
Student empowerment, her third pillar, focuses on improving access to information and decision-making processes. She emphasized publishing clearer information about orientation, governance, and faculty meetings, as well as increasing transparency around finances and internal procedures.
When asked about EngSoc’s strengths, Leitch described its strongest asset as its sense of community, while acknowledging what she said was a gap between EngSoc and other faculty societies and the broader Kingston community. She said she would aim to build on existing external relations initiatives to strengthen those connections. This could include formalized connections between EngSoc services and equivalent AMS services, as well as regular meetings between service heads to exchange ideas and coordinate efforts.
Fin Roberts
Reflecting on his motivation for running, Roberts said his leadership experiences within EngSoc significantly shaped his university experience, adding his love for EngSoc.
A Mechatronics Engineering student, Roberts pointed to several leadership roles within EngSoc as formative experiences, including his serving on the Frosh Reception and Engagement Committee (FREC) in his first year as a Thundermugz Day Coordinator.
Later in his undergraduate career, Roberts served as one of the heads of the Orientation Team for Incoming Students, where he explained he led a larger team and restructured the organization by adding new positions and changing the structure. He described the outcome as successful and said the role gave him experience with direct responsibility and long-term planning.
Outside of EngSoc, Roberts worked as a scheduling coordinator for Paddle Camps, a children’s camp organization, where he coordinated managers and staff across multiple locations.
Roberts identified advocacy and conflict resolution as key skills, emphasizing empathy and listening when navigating disagreements within large organizations.
“I think I’m someone who’s really good at advocating for what the group I’m representing needs,” he said.
His platform is built around three pillars: expanded impact, student advocacy, and future resilience. Roberts expanded impact pillar focuses on increasing the number of engineering students who benefit directly from EngSoc initiatives. Among his proposals are housing assistance programs and increased engagement with design teams through mid-year open houses and workshops.
“So, we’re demystifying the design team in some ways,” he said.
Professional development also features prominently in Roberts’ platform. He proposed expanding the professional development portfolio, which he said could offer more workshops, interview preparation, and increased support for first-year students navigating the internship search process.
His student advocacy pillar focuses on increasing student involvement in discussions surrounding major funding sources, including the Better Education Donation Fund (BEDFund) and the Smith Engineering donation. Roberts proposed establishing a BEDFund advisory board with longer-term student representation.
Roberts future resilience pillar centers on long-term sustainability with EngSoc. He proposed mandating continuity and knowledge transition documents within EngSoc’s constitution, standardizing interview review processes, and reallocating a portion of the external budget toward initiatives that benefit more students directly.
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The EngSoc presidential debates will take place on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Integrated Learning Centre atrium. Voting will take place from Jan. 27 to 28, with results revealed on Jan. 29.
Tags
Elections 2026, EngSoc, EngSoc elections, EngSoc president
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