Empower Us 2018 – Lourdes Lugue

Instructor, University of Calgary
Senior Process Engineer, APTES Engineering Corp.
P Eng, MSc, Private Consultant

Lourdes Lugue is a professional engineer, who spent most time of her career, managing projects dealing with the protection of the environment, in particular, the treatment of very polluted wastewater and the management of garbage. She also is a passionate teacher. As a young engineering graduate, she earned her first job as a teacher at University of Santo Tomas teaching engineering subjects . To date, she is continuing this passion to educate people as an instructor at the University of Calgary’s Continuing Education Programs.

Lourdes was born in the Philippines, and graduated as a Civil Engineer, and then pursued another degree to be an Environmental Engineer. It was the later degree that made her focus in the field of environmental sciences to which she took up further studies earning a Masters Degree in Environmental Sanitation at the State University of Gent in Belgium.

After many years of working as Process Engineer in the Philippines, she decided to migrate to Canada (having visited this country before and appreciated what Canada has to offer for the future of her children). As any immigrant to a new country, struggles are imminent…from adjusting to the weather to dealing with marital life, to securing a job in line with your education and experience, etc. For 6 years living in Toronto, Lourdes had met the most difficult and trying times of her life ….tests that could easily defeat any will power of an educated immigrant towards surviving. In order to provide for her family and make ends meet, she worked a range of jobs, including working as a customer service representative at Future Shop, as a Food Service staff at Toronto East General Hospital, and as a private tutor.

Behind all these challenges, she remained steadfast and determined to get back to where she wanted to be… to practice as a Professional Engineer in Canada. To achieve this, she moved to Calgary, Alberta in 2007- this time, she was a single mother with two young children to support. She initially worked as a Diet Secretary cum Food Service staff at Alberta Children’s Hospital for almost a year, then she landed a job as an operator for City of Calgary’s water treatment facilities. She continued to work hard on getting her designation as Professional Engineer from APEGA, where finally received the designation in 2010. Shortly after that, she was offered a position to lead an exciting project on treating the leachate or “garbage juice” from the City’s landfills. This project had earned her a prestigious award from APEGA, the 2016 Environment and Sustainability Award.

To date, Lourdes left her City job as a Senior Engineer but is continuing to direct her goals towards working in ASIA as a private consultant. She is currently the Lead Process Engineer of APTES Engineering Corp, a firm dealing with multi-million dollars projects on municipal wastewater treatment. She is also a proud mother of a young son working as a commercial pilot and a daughter who is currently in Japan working as an engineering intern.