My name is Mylene & I am the CEO & Co-founder of Lumaki Labs. I study Management Engineering at the University of Waterloo and I like sharing my experiences to help me reflect and spark new ideas. Currently, my company and I are on a mission to revolutionize the future of work through virtual internships.

It’s no surprise that with work, school, and many other aspects of life moving online, internships have been no exception.

This past summer, many employers opted to cancel, shorten, or turn their internship opportunities virtual. This meant that thousands of students didn’t get to experience…

My name is Mylene & I am a student entrepreneur that is currently on a journey to impact people positively through tech & business. I study Management Engineering at the University of Waterloo and I like sharing my experiences to help me reflect and (hopefully) inspire other young people.

This year I applied to zero jobs. With the Fall co-op/internship term underway, I thought I’d share why I decided to “DIY” my experience.

So, what exactly do I mean by “DIY” or “do-it-yourself”?

After a long debate with myself and a few encouraging conversations, I decided to pursue the opportunity…

​Hack the North is Canada’s largest hackathon, held at the University of Waterloo. It is a 36-hour hackathon bringing together 1,000 students across the globe to bring ideas to life.

So here’s the deal, I went into Hack the North 2018 without a team but I left the hackathon with a job interview, multiple new connections, business leads, and a bunch of free stuff.

​To be blunt, this hackathon experience was much different from all of my past hackathons- this time around I did not hack/design to compete. …

Let’s back track to about two years ago. If you were to ask my grade 11 self,

“Why don’t you go into engineering?”

, I would have scoffed and retorted a stern “No.” In fact, something like this actually did happen when my dad suggested I pursue engineering (he himself studied engineering). I remember it clearly, we were in the living room when my dad suggested it ever so casually. My literal response was,

“You’re funny. I don’t want to work with cars, I would never go into engineering.”

Yes, the dreaded “N” word. I vividly remember being so against…

Growing up I always liked having a plan. I loved making lists and setting timelines so during the first four months of my university career I made a plan-based decision.

I told myself that during each co-op term I would use my spare time to build something. That each co-op term would have some time spent on building a plan- a plan to do something, start something, make an impact on a topic that I had not yet established. In my mind, I constructed the idea that as a student I would be too engrossed in my studies to have…