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She had completed a costume studies diploma at Dal in 2007 and was working in fashion design and retail management in Toronto when she began imagining a different future for herself. Engineering may not have seemed like a natural next step, but she discovered many of her skills carried over to this new academic venture.

Engineering problem-solving is similar to creative and artistic design. — Melanie Worobetz

“The two disciplines share more transferrable skills than I originally expected, such as science, math, research and presenting.”

Worobetz was offered an Irving Oil scholarship when she applied to Dal Engineering, which came with the opportunity to do her co-op placement at its Saint John, N.B., headquarters. She says she was eager for the opportunity to work for such a respected company, which has been named a Canada Top 100 Employer for nine consecutive years. Additionally, Irving Oil’s Saint John refinery is Canada’s largest and is pivotal in providing energy security to Atlantic Canada and the U.S. Northeast.

During her co-op term, she was part of the Irving Oil refinery's reliability engineering team. It investigates ways to make the refinery more reliable, with reduced downtime. One of her projects was reassessing lubrication systems, with her co-op report including recommendations around reducing lubricant contamination.