Isabelle Peet is following her father and grandfather’s example and graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours).
She will celebrate achieving her Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) next week, with three generations of her family there to watch.
Isabelle’s father Will Peet graduated with the same degree from UC in 1993, majoring in civil engineering, before going on to achieve his master’s. He now works in Wellington as a civil engineer. Her grandfather, John Peet, was also an engineer who lectured at UC in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering until his retirement.
Isabelle says they are both “chuffed” with her choice of career and are excited to join her graduation celebration along with her mum and siblings.
“There’s definitely an engineering theme in the family, and it’s a bit of a web,” she admits. “My grandfather’s brother and many of my dad’s cousins are engineers too, and on the other side of my family, my cousin is currently in her final year of engineering at UC.”
Another family member, Isabelle’s grandfather’s uncle, Bill Bowen, was also an engineer and lectured at UC in electrical engineering from 1948 until 1975.
However, Isabelle wasn’t sure what she wanted to study when she was in high school in Wellington and says there was no family pressure to go into engineering. She considered studying health sciences in Dunedin but in the end engineering at UC won out, partly because the student lifestyle in Christchurch appealed.
After finishing her studies, she was keen to stay in Ōtautahi. “I really wanted to find a job here. Lots of my friends from uni have found jobs here as well and it’s a cool city. I like the access it has to the mountains.”
Isabelle was very happy to land a Christchurch-based role at AECOM, an international engineering consultancy, earlier this year. She’s enjoying the job so far and says she is already working on interesting projects, mainly focused on the structural design of civil infrastructure.
Having the family connection with and understanding of engineering as a career is helpful, she says. “It’s really nice to gather around and talk to my dad about things through that engineering lens, it’s quite a privilege to be able to do that.
“I really enjoy the practicality of engineering and how it comes into almost everything that we do, even if we don’t realise that it does.”
Her work has taught her that even smaller, more humble components of large-scale projects require detail and to be designed to work in the most functional and efficient way possible. “I think that’s pretty cool.”
Isabelle says she established an incredible group of friends in her first year studying Engineering at UC. “We’re all still so close, so it was a really great experience throughout uni to have such awesome people around.”
She is looking forward to the group having a celebratory dinner during UC’s autumn graduation week along with all of their parents.
UC Chronicle Magazine from 1993 (p.5) picturing Isabelle’s father William Peet, grandfather Dr John Peet and great, great uncle Bill Bowen.
