Aparna Mohan

Student Appointee, 2022-2023

Member, Academic and Student Affairs Committee and Executive Committee  

Aparna Mohan is an Industrial Engineering Co-op student at Dalhousie University and the Dalhousie Student Union President (DSU) for 2022-2023. Aparna has complemented her academic career with rigorous leadership roles spanning community-building, outreach, and university governance both within the University and beyond.

Aparna established her roots in the community through Residence Life where being in service of over 240 residents from different years, academic programs, and cultural backgrounds provided an intimate window into the various dimensions of the student university experience. First, as a Residence Assistant from 2017 to 2019 and then as a Senior Residence Assistant from 2019 to 2020, Aparna has counselled residents through failed midterms, interpersonal conflicts, mental health challenges, and more alongside her own engineering studies. She has also been involved in university governance through past seats on the Dalhousie Senate and Board of Governors before her election as the incumbent DSU President.

Aparna has also been actively involved in the engineering community at local, regional and national levels through her contributions to engineering outreach, attendance of various national engineering conferences, and wins at engineering competitions. Most recently, Aparna served as the Vice President Advocacy of the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES), a national engineering organization representing the interests of over 80,000 students across Canada to partners such as the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) and Engineering Deans Canada (EDC).

Aparna has been invited to several speaking engagements related to mental health and EDI advocacy and was the recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Student of Distinction Dalhousie IMPACT Award. She was also the recipient, alongside the rest of her team, of the 2022 Eldon Gunn Senior Project Award for Industrial Engineering awarded to the students who produced the best solution for a company or client as part of their Capstone Project in Industry.

Aparna is deeply aware of how strong communities fuel individual creativity, innovation, and resilience. The deep and diverse relationships she has built both inside and outside lecture halls inform her tenacious and pragmatic idealism about the future of engineering and post-secondary education.