Manan Jain

A winter term spent closer to infrastructure: learning how developer platforms support large engineering organizations, getting comfortable around real lab hardware, and growing through the care of a generous team. The technical work raised my standards; the people made the term unforgettable.

Four months of moving to a new city, finding my people, and learning what it means to build software inside a public institution used by millions. The work mattered, but so did the life around it—the first-day welcome, busy desks, patient mentors, a tiny home for the term, and Toronto becoming familiar.

My first substantial backend-engineering chapter: learning to turn requirements into working systems with guidance from Arpit Dhawan and Aniridh Jain. During this period I was also part of the University of Waterloo’s WUSA Turnkey Desk—balancing technical growth with the very human work of helping people, handling responsibility, and becoming part of campus life.

My introduction to professional life and to what happens inside a marketing agency. Prince Khaneja made it much more than a first internship: he took time to teach me practical Microsoft Excel workarounds, share personal-finance lessons, and offer mentorship that reached well beyond the job.