Coming North Building a home and a career
different ways to build. The relationship between clients, contractors, and the government is also different.” She secured a position with Associated Engineering in 2020, working under the supervision of a professional engineer. The company aided her in getting her P.Eng. and supported her application process. “The process is not complicated,” she says. “But, for a newcomer, some things take priority over others.” She postponed the idea of starting the process. After submitting her paperwork, she completed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. With the support of her employer, she studied, passed the test, and became a member-in-training with APEGA. To obtain her P.Eng. designation, she needed to pass the National Professional Practice Exam—an exam all applicants must take, regardless of their country of origin. She earned her P.Eng. designation in 2024. “Why is (APEGA) so important? It’s to protect the public. APEGA’s function is to license professionals and check that we meet the professional, ethical, and technical standards. So, that creates trust—in the companies and the individuals who practise engineering.”
THERE WAS A TIME when Elsa Hernández Manrique would not have been able to find the city of Lethbridge on a map. Born and raised in Mexico and the daughter of an engineer, she followed in her dad’s footsteps. She graduated from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico and started her career as an onsite inspector for bridge and highway projects. Later she worked as an international consultant for a company that made steel and aluminum domes. She eventually became a construction site manager in a Mexican gold mine. When her husband accepted a post-doctoral position in 2018 through the University of Lethbridge and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the couple left Mexico and settled in Alberta. After receiving her work permit, the next step was to become licensed as a professional engineer. “The life of a newcomer is not always easy,” she says. “It requires you to adapt to new environments, new language, new people—you practically start all over. Professionally speaking, in my case, I had to adapt to a different construction business, different standards,
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