Mrunal Aroskar’s work experience showed her how technical skills, collaboration and curiosity can open unexpected opportunities
When Mrunal Aroskar started her computer science degree at UBC Okanagan, she expected to pursue a career in programming.
Sixteen months of co-op work experience, split between a cabinetry company and the BC Public Service, helped her discover her real strengths and interests.
Aroskar graduated this June with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in computer science and minoring in data science, with a co-op designation.
She moved to Canada in 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, to begin her studies at UBCO. She hoped her time at university would help her discover more than a career path, and she did.
“I wanted to fuel my passions, discover my strengths and gain the resources to turn my ideas into something meaningful,” she says.
Learning the business first
Mrunal Aroskar, second on the right, worked at Westwood Cabinetry and the BC Public Service during her 16 month co-op at UBCO.
Her first co-op placement was as a data analyst at Westwood Cabinetry in Kelowna, where she used technical tools like Python, SQL and Power BI to analyze sales and marketing data.
She quickly realized that technical ability alone wouldn’t be enough to make sense of the volume of data waiting for her, though.
Before writing queries or building dashboards, she had to learn about the company’s products, operations and goals.
That lesson stayed with her.
“Clean data means very little without business context,” she says.
Testing AI for government analysts
Mrunal Aroskar graduated from UBC Okanagan in 2026 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and a minor in data science.
Aroskar then completed two work terms as a business analyst with the BC Public Service’s Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs.
She was one of the primary business analysts in the data warehouse for an enterprise grant management system, which was designed to pull grant information from various sources into one consolidated repository so government executives could produce consistent, reliable reports.
Alongside this work, she evaluated how AI could support business analysis.
She tested the standard and Microsoft 365 versions of Copilot across more than 50 use cases, including summarizing stakeholder input, analyzing customer feedback and automating test case generation from existing user stories through prompt engineering.
The evaluation helped identify tasks AI could streamline and those that still required human judgment. The team subsequently automated test case creation, reducing the time needed to generate test cases by roughly half while maintaining quality control.
The job came with its own challenges. At times, Aroskar supported three teams simultaneously while also learning new tools. She also dealt with imposter syndrome as she settled into her role.
“I initially thought my role would be mostly technical, but I realized that a big part of my work was understanding what people needed, asking the right questions and helping turn those requirements into solutions,” she says.
Building community on and off campus
Mrunal Aroskar poses with colleagues inside the Hall of Honour at the BC Legislature in Victoria.
At the BC Public Service, Aroskar joined the organization’s Co-op Advisory Board, a group of co-op students across various ministries and cities who organized events for their cohort, from group dinners to virtual connections.
On campus, she served as Vice-President External for the Enactus club, where she helped launch a social enterprise incubation program. She also spoke on a senior-student panel for the co-op office, sharing her experiences and advice with students.
She was also part of a six-person capstone team that built a tool called AI-Integrated Development Education, a platform that uses artificial intelligence to grade web development assignments and give students personalized feedback.
The project’s client chose it for implementation.
Aroskar encourages students to look beyond job titles that seem like an obvious match for their degrees and to embrace opportunities that take them outside their comfort zones.
“Growth often feels confusing and even uncomfortable at the beginning,” she says. “Those moments are a sign that you are learning.”
