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Remi Rotenberg went purple on day one, then led Orientation

The fourth-year Civil Engineering student says built-in friends from Engineering Orientation shaped her degree; her father Meir (BASc ’89) is a Waterloo engineer.

Alumni Digest desk, from the University of Waterloo news site

Orientation leaders in blue lab coats and colourful hard hats pose with arms crossed
Campus LifeOrientation leaders in blue lab coats and colourful hard hats pose with arms crossedPhoto: University of Waterloo (uwaterloo.ca); rights under review

Remi Rotenberg, now a fourth-year Civil Engineering student, knew Engineering Orientation by reputation before she arrived. Her father, Meir Rotenberg (BASc ’89), had told her stories. She says the real thing felt different, and within days she was purple, head to toe.

A group of Orientation leaders in pink and other bright colours pose together
Campus LifeA group of Orientation leaders in pink and other bright colours pose togetherPhoto: University of Waterloo (uwaterloo.ca); rights under review

Orientation put her on a colour team with fellow Civil Engineering students. They became friends and study partners, sat together in lectures and turned to each other for the first group projects. Upper-year students became mentors too, passing on advice and notes.

Those contacts led her to the Engineering Society. After her first year she came back as an Orientation leader and took on more of the planning and delivery each year. She says she has had more fun as a leader than she did as a first-year student.

Her message to nervous newcomers is that everyone else is just as nervous, and calming those nerves together turns out to be a bonding experience.

Sources 1
  1. Original reporting · uwaterloo.ca
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This story is from the September 2026 issue of Alumni Digest · Waterloo. It's free, monthly and independent.

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