Meet Alumni Kate Azizova
Integrative Thinking inspired Kate Azizova to aim higher and think deeper, shaping her path from high school student to Rotman Commerce alum and Technology Enablement Specialist at Shopify.
Artifact: RJS Scholarship Letter
“My most significant change is probably the fact that I started to try to get better at things. Like the year before I was okay with going to [a less reputable university] and doing an average program there. And this year I was applying to Schulich, I was applying to Rotman Commerce…. it made me strive for the best.”
Kate Azizova’s experience with Integrative Thinking reshaped her aspirations for her career and life. Today, she’s a Rotman Commerce Alumni and Technology Enablement Specialist at Shopify, where she translates complex Salesforce technical updates into clear, user-friendly communications and training. It’s work that demands empathy, collaboration, and the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once, she says. She develops the experience for over 1,700 users directly, while collaborating with a diverse team of over 20 professionals daily. “My job is to create an experience for the user that’s easy to follow,” Kate explains. “That user mindset, building empathy and managing different perspectives, is something I took from I-Think and still carry with me every day.”
The roots of this mindset go back to high school for Kate. As part of the grade 12 Business Leadership Course taught with Integrative Thinking, she worked with the national organization Pathways to Education. Kate and her classmates set out to solve the challenge of increasing family’s abilities to support their child in their education journey. Kate distinctly remembers the moment her group came to an insight that changes the course of their challenge. They realized the real problem was about strengthening all students’ support networks, not just the ones with their parents. “Everything from defining the challenge to realizing that the problem actually lies in a completely different place has taught me to enjoy tackling complex challenges,” Kate reflected.
In 2016, Kate was awarded the R.J.S. Scholarship, an investment in her resilience and commitment to community. At the time, she wrote: “I do not focus on the things that I cannot do. Instead, I keep my focus on everything that I have to learn and gain from every challenge I face.” Today, that same mindset anchors her career at one of Canada’s most innovative companies.
