“I think about my time at engineering as an evolving toolkit: Before I came into engineering, that toolkit was empty, but year after year, Integrated Engineering has helped me equip myself with one new tool at a time."
Pranav Menon
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Applied Science
- Grad year: 2019
- Program:
- Campus: Vancouver
If there’s one way to describe Pranav, it would be an intrapreneur — someone that is ridiculously passionate about using their entrepreneurial mindset to solve problems not just through startups or ventures, but also within organizations.
Throughout his five years at UBC, he has used that to guide all his decisions at UBC — from joining the Integrated Engineering Program, to creating a campus-wide peer-driven entrepreneurship support service through AMS Services (AMS eHub), to working at Microdermics (a medical device venture), to enabling entrepreneurial support for our faculty members working on impactful research, to coaching early stage startups at entrepreneurship@UBC and then finally, as a teaching assistant (TA) for APSC 100/101.
Integrated Engineering Program Microdermics entrepreneurship@UBC
What have you learned in engineering that is most valuable?
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned at engineering is: design your own unique narrative!
Towards the end of my third year, I remember having some serious imposter syndrome. At the time, traditional engineering jobs didn’t quite appeal to me, but since everyone around me was doing it, I very much felt less of an engineer.
That’s when it dawned on me: engineering is not about a career path, it’s about equipping yourself with a toolkit — one that you can use to solve problems that you deeply care about. Realizing that helped me completely redefine my understanding of what a career meant to me. It went from “How do I find a secure job?” to “How can I use what I’ve learned to help advance the impact that this company is looking to create?".
What has been your most memorable/valuable non-academic experience studying engineering at UBC?
Two years ago — while building AMS Entrepreneurship Hub (eHub) — I remember having some tea with Sophie and Caelen (two students from the Faculty of Arts). They had a deep burning desire to solve the excessive coffee cup consumption problem here at UBC — as all coffee cups have a plastic lining on the inner walls of the cup that prevent them from being recyclable. The only thing getting in their way was a lack of funds to get started.
A couple of months later, through a partnership I created with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) called RBC Get Seeded, Sophie and Caelen received a $500 grant to make their vision of reduced coffee cup consumption a reality. Since then, they’ve put countless reusable coffee cups in the hands of many students on campus through sold out pop-up-shops, and have been continuing to do so ever since.
That story is one of countless memorable stories I’m grateful to have supported through eHub. And it goes to show that you don’t need to be an engineer or a business student to be an entrepreneur. If there’s anything we’ve learned from them, it’s that if you deeply care about a problem and seek the right support, you can make it happen!
How will you go on to make a difference in our world?
My grand plan for making a difference in the world is actually quite simple: it’s to start small and make an impact on communities around me. One of my biggest joys in life is being an educator and enabling opportunities for others. And so, I’m going to make that difference by working for impact driven startups in Vancouver; continuing to coach early stage student startups, and as a result, help equip them with the entrepreneurial mindset; and finally, to continue to be a kind human being and offer support wherever I can.
