Hansen wins 2024 USask Indigenous Achievement Award

Engineering student Christopher Hansen is the winner of a 2024 University of Saskatchewan (USask) Indigenous Achievement Award for Academic Excellence. He is a member of the Fishing Lake First Nation. 

Hansen, who was born and raised in Saskatoon, is in his third year of studying mechanical engineering. He describes below, in his own words, his journey toward his engineering degree so far.

“My high school experience was unremarkable and this was true too for my grades. I struggled deeply with mathematics and had trouble giving the time necessary to comprehend the sciences which nearly made me a drop out!

Regardless of this my love for science and what I later understood to be Engineering never changed. By the end of high school I knew that I wanted to be an engineer.

As a child growing up, I had a keen interest in aviation and since aviation was my goal at the time, I  graduated with great distinction from SIIT’s AME program. After, I upgraded the required math and  physics classes that I needed to enter the College of Engineering.

Looking forward, I’ve built a passion  for nuclear energy and want to further build my love of life-long learning, I know that there will be many more challenges ahead, but now I can face them with pride and confidence that they can be  overcome.”