Former FSU President makes history at Fanshawe College
CREDIT: FANSHAWE COLLEGEKatyayini Thakur (pictured) has been hired as a full-time faculty member in the School of Transportation Technology & Apprenticeship (STTA).
Former Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) President, Katyayini Thakur has been appointed as a full-time faculty member in the School of Transportation Technology & Apprenticeship (STTA). This makes Thakur the first former international student in Fanshawe history to be hired as a full-time faculty member at the college.
“It’s one of my dreams come true and it’s a terrific opportunity,” Thakur said. “And I’m so glad to be doing this for numerous reasons.”
Thakur served as president for the FSU during the 2020/21 academic year and said she remembers her time with the student union fondly.
“I absolutely loved working in the FSU,” she said. “I mean, it was such a unique experience and I wish I could do it another year. But you know, unfortunately you’re not allowed to. Everything was wonderful.”
Thakur’s time as president was heavily marred by the COVID- 19 pandemic, but Thakur credits that time as essential for helping her better understand the needs of students.
She said she is taking that experience with her into her new role as a professor in the Automotive Service Management program and also as she looks to develop an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion curriculum for the Green Vehicle Technology program set to launch in 2024.
“Helping them just understand the various equity deserving communities and educating our students on Indigenous people and the LGBTQ+ [community], and then women and other racialized communities. And I think that’s very, very important for us to be doing as we’re evolving in the automotive sector.”
Thakur is a trained physician originally from India who came to Fanshawe in 2019 to study Health Systems Management. She is multilingual and speaks English, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Punjabi. For the past year, she has been teaching part-time in the Automotive Service Management program as well as the Health Care Administration Management program at the London South Campus.
Thakur acknowledged the weight of her appointment, adding that not only is she the first former international student to be hired as a full-time faculty member, but also the first woman in the School of Transportation Technology.
“It’s been only men,” she said. “It’s a male dominated world too, as you can imagine. Associate Dean [Carl Mendonca] had this vision where he wants a more equitable kind of environment with different experiences to be shared with our students. So that's how I got involved.”
As the school year kicks off, Thakur said she is excited to get started.
“I’m very excited, very thrilled, honoured.”
