Math major finds his place in TMU's bustling student culture
Second-year mathematics student Benson Zhang explores his discipline and gives back to fellow students
Benson Zhang came to TMU to study mathematics and its applications and found even more possibilities than he expected, both in his discipline and also in the university experience. In math, he discovered that there were many more branches than he had learned about in high school and that so many of them could have real-world applications. At TMU, he found what he describes as a lively city and culture, with endless choices in terms of student groups to get involved with.
Zhang also threw himself into the scene, becoming the First-Year Director for his program in the Faculty of Science undergraduate association, USSTM. Now in his second year, Zhang has stayed on as a Math Representative and has also taken on a role as Operations Director of USSTM, where he gets to see behind the scenes into the backbone of the operation, working on everything from governing policies to training events. “I find it’s very rewarding, especially in operations, as you get to see the results of your actions quickly,” he says.
Zhang made an impact on the association from day one, championing a new first-year student feedback program as well as events for first-years. In his second year, he is happy to be able to advocate for his fellow math peers and has gone beyond his role to take on tasks like creating TikToks to engage science students and starting an environmental science group (VIRO (external link) ) to run events like a trash clean up day on campus and social media campaigns around topics such as food waste and biodiversity. He was also involved in the rebranding and restructuring of the new USSTM website (external link) . Zhang is very positive about his student experience so far. “I definitely recommend TMU: I really like the culture, and there’s a lot of things to do,” he says. “Everyone says that about every school, but I find TMU has a lot of very tailored student groups, and it’s very easy to start one–just this year, we ratified five new groups.”
Zhang had initially thought he might be a teacher and is now considering becoming a university professor.