This article is part of a series focusing on the grads of the HÂţ» Fall Class of 2025.ĚýRead all our profiles hereĚýin one place as they are published.
During Canadian Thanksgiving last fall when many students were taking a break to relax and enjoy the long weekend, Abdelaziz Elherbawy was stressing about the status of his Honours application.
Spoiler alert: Those worries are now firmly in Abdelaziz’s rearview as he prepares to graduate this week with a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Mathematics and Economics.
So why the concern at the time? Abdelaziz had started his fourth year earlier that fall, and it was admittedly later than usual to be seeking acceptance into an Honours program.
Studying math wasn’t his original intention after starting his BSc. The plan was to major in biology or chemistry, but he realized after first-year courses in those subjects that they weren’t a fit. After talking it over with his parents, he decided to focus on math.
Ěý“In my second year, although I enjoyed math, I struggled,” he says. “In the winter, I was failing one of my classes, and I was really doubting myself over the summer going into my third year.”
After that, something clicked.
“Ever since then, I’ve been getting good grades. It’s the first time I believed in myself that I could actually go through and do this.” He points to one class that “made me grow up”: Introductory Analysis (MATH 2505), whose course description notes is for “serious students of mathematics.”
Abdelaziz ultimately was accepted into an Honours program supervised by Dr. Jeannette Jansen. “She was very gracious to take me in during the last week and helped me the whole way,” he says, adding that he found faculty in both the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics & Economics to be “super, super helpful” over the course of his degree.
A rational choice
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If Abdelaziz’s Honours thesis on graph theory — titled “The Zero Forcing Number of the Hypercube” — represented the more theoretical elements of math, his studies in economics focused on the applied side.
“I’ve always been into politics, into economics, when I was younger, so it just made sense,” he says of the choice to take on a double major.
Economics is the field in which he is pursuing graduate studies. In March, he was accepted into a master’s program, which he hopes will lead to a PhD. He’s not sure yet whether he’ll focus on macroeconomics or something a bit more specialized, like industrial organization.
“Canada has a big problem with monopolies,” he notes.
Hard work pays offĚýĚý
Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, Abdelaziz and his family moved to Halifax when he was nine, so his mother, father, and brother will be on hand to attend Wednesday’s Convocation.
While the ceremony won’t represent the end of Abdelaziz’s time at Dal, he is looking forward to the occasion.
“It’s a big moment,” he says. “You finally feel the culmination of all your work.”