(Edmonton) When Meghana Valupadas was in Grade 6, she was elected mayor of her class. Little did she know it, but that campaign set the stage for her future advocacy work.
Aside from completing her civil engineering degree (co-op) this year, Valupadas' list of accomplishments is impressive: youth council for the City of Edmonton in Grade 12, representative in the Engineering Students' Society, vice-chair of the Women's Advocacy Voice of Edmonton (WAVE) and founding president of Diversity in Engineering (DivE) group.
Valupadas believes her mother is one of the reasons she's driven to help others.
"She always thinks of herself, not second, but she always thinks of others first. And that's something that I think has really influenced me growing up, is helping others before myself."
One of Valupadas' teachers at Ottewell Junior High School, Mrs. Hamilton, was also a huge inspiration for her. As a teenager, Valupadas had a lot of ideas about society. One day her teacher handed her an application for the Edmonton Youth Council.
"I had no idea what it was, I was absolutely terrified, but I applied anyways. And that really created a trajectory in my life that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't given me that application and said, 'join this.' Because it's influenced so much in my life."
Reflecting on her time in the Faculty of Engineering, Valupadas is proud of the creation of DivE, particularly because it emerged from a passionate Facebook rant she posted last year after her frustration with the "toxic masculinity" in engineering chants sung by some students..
She channelled that frustration by pairing up with engineering graduate student Salma El Mallah and created DivE.
"When we first started out, we didn't know how to create a student group. We were just a group of passionate folks who wanted to talk about these things, so turning that into an initiative, a movement, a recognized student club."
With DivE established and with the support of Associate Dean of Outreach Ania Ulrich, Valupadas and her team surveyed engineering students about the current culture, and several themes emerged: a call for better mental health support, preparing female students for a male-dominated workplace, and an academic culture that promotes the normalization of the stress within the engineering program.
Another theme that came out was the "lack of recognition of LGBTQ students, as well as indigenous students who we also don't recognize a lot in the faculty."
Valupadas believes DivE has resulted in significant cultural change within engineering.
"On the student level, DivE has done some different events and workshops, and of course…surveys to better understand where students are coming from. On the faculty side, we've definitely seen some changes, like the establishment of the Female Engineer mentorship (FEM) Program."
Valupadas' motivation for diversity and equality comes from her love and fascination of people. She also admits she's a sensitive person who reacts when someone shares a personal struggle with her.
"It bears on my soul a little bit more than it probably should. But it think that's where the passion comes from, just that I know that we as people have the abilities to change systems, and to kind of create our own world."