{"id":9284,"date":"2025-01-30T11:52:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T16:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/?p=9284"},"modified":"2025-05-07T11:36:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T15:36:38","slug":"student-profile-mackenzie-ostler-ics-students-b-cog-sc-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/2025\/student-profile-mackenzie-ostler-ics-students-b-cog-sc-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Mackenzie Ostler (BCogSc, 2018), Senior Data Engineer, Shopify"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-max  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n        \n        \n            \n    <div class=\"cu-wideimage relative flex items-center justify-center mx-auto px-8 overflow-hidden md:px-16 rounded-xl not-prose  my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 bg-cu-black-50 pt-10 pb-12\" style=\"\">\n\n        \n        <div class=\"relative z-[2] max-w-4xl w-full flex flex-col items-center gap-2 cu-wideimage-image cu-zero-first-last\">\n            <header class=\"mx-auto mb-6 text-center text-cu-black-800 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated cu-pageheader--center md:mb-12\">\n\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold mb-2 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] cu-pageheader--center text-center mx-auto after:left-px\">\n                        Mackenzie Ostler (BCogSc, 2018), Senior Data Engineer, Shopify\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/header>\n        <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    \n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"240\" height=\"358\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/Mackenzie-Ostler-240x358.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/Mackenzie-Ostler-240x358.jpg 240w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/Mackenzie-Ostler-160x239.jpg 160w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/Mackenzie-Ostler-400x597.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/Mackenzie-Ostler-360x538.jpg 360w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/Mackenzie-Ostler.jpg 468w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mackenzie Ostler (Bachelor of Cognitive Science, 2018)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Senior Data Engineer, Shopify<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Choosing a university program can be a daunting task, since students often feel like they are choosing a path for the rest of their life. I felt this pressure when I started&nbsp;researching and visiting prospective universities&nbsp;in high school.&nbsp;I am very happy that I chose Cognitive Science at Carleton University! The&nbsp;B.Cog.Sc&nbsp;program allows students the freedom to build their degree to suit their interests, while providing them with the building blocks to get there without feeling overwhelmed by all of the opportunities available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are countless ways to build your&nbsp;B.Cog.Sc&nbsp;degree. I chose to take core courses in computer science, and I spiced things up with statistics, math, and psychology classes. This combination gave me an advantage when applying to co-op and full-time jobs, as I was able to bring a new perspective to primarily computer-science based teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only does the&nbsp;B.Cog.Sc&nbsp;degree prepare its students for many career opportunities, my education itself was a fantastic experience. The professors are amazing and passionate people who are keen to see you succeed, and excited to assist you in that journey. I joined Dr. Jim Davies\u2019 Science of Imagination Lab in my first year at Carleton, and not only did I learn heaps about how research works, but I met a number of incredibly smart and interesting individuals who were conducting cutting-edge research. Joining this lab was one of the best decisions that I made in university!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I currently work as a Senior Data Engineer at Shopify,&nbsp;where I use large amounts of data to answer difficult questions and support business decisions.&nbsp; The mindset I developed during my B.Cog.Sc degree helped me to craft a way of approaching problems and asking questions that prepared me for this career path.&nbsp;Beyond that, my&nbsp;B.Cog.Sc&nbsp;degree helped me to develop computational skills, a research mindset, and the ability to approach problems from different perspectives, all of which are valuable skills in my field.&nbsp; I cannot recommend Carleton\u2019s Cognitive Science program enough \u2014 it gives you the core courses and the flexibility to study your interests, and it sets you up for several opportunities before and after graduation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mackenzie Ostler (Bachelor of Cognitive Science, 2018) Senior Data Engineer, Shopify Choosing a university program can be a daunting task, since students often feel like they are choosing a path for the rest of their life. I felt this pressure when I started&nbsp;researching and visiting prospective universities&nbsp;in high school.&nbsp;I am very happy that I chose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-blogs"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16509,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9284\/revisions\/16509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}