Service
Gold Experience
Alternative Spring Break
During the 2021-2022 academic year, I worked to co-lead a week-long Alternative Spring Break experience on K-12 Educational Equity in Baltimore City. During that week, participants learned about Baltimore City, its students, and the systemic inequities present in its education system. My co-loeader, Polina Kassir, and I worked to organize meetings with local educators, non-profits, and government leaders to provide participants with an enriching and immersive experience. We hope that Alternative Spring Break was valuable to each of our participants; we wanted to provide them with opportunities to challenge their own way of thinking and connect with stakeholders who are working to advance educational equity in the City.
This experience was beyond rewarding. I loved being able to contribute to such a large-scale service experience during my last semester at UMBC. It was also very timely for me; I felt like I had lost touch with some of the skills that I bring to the table as a first-generation low-income student. This experience also helped me realize that it had been quite some time since I left the bubble of UMBC for any service opportunities. While I love helping college students, I've realized that I am more passionate about improving access to higher education.
STRiVE 2021
During fall 2020, I worked with a team of UMBC staff and students to prepare for the annual STRiVE Leadership retreat for Social Impact. At STRiVE, participants take part in reflection, community building, and community engagement workshops to prepare them to become better leaders within their UMBC community.
This was the first sustained service experience I did during the pandemic. It helped me appreciate the value of the work we were doing by creating a leadership retreat to promote genuine connections between students. We formed an exceptionally strong community despite all of the barriers and hardship each of us were facing, and I am so thankful that I was able to have a hand in creating it!
REACH Initiative
From Fall 2019 to Summer 2020 I was involved in the UMBC REACH Initiative, which is a service site through UMBC's Shriver Center. The REACH Initiative is a mentorship program for high school girls that are interested in enrolling in a STEM discipline during college. Mentors and mentees participate in both STEM and Gender Empowerment workshops, and during Spring semester collaborate on a research project together.
This experience relates very closely with my proposed Grand Challenge, because mentoring with REACH helps give a specific demographic of students the tools that they will need to succeed in the future. My involvement with REACH helped me become more a more introspective individual; I was expected to reflect on my own experiences and contribute to group discussion in an open and honest way. In sharing my story, mentees then have a more realistic idea of what they can expect once they reach college, and make the most informed decision on whether a STEM discipline is right for them.