{"id":4,"date":"2014-04-23T06:35:27","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T06:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/?p=4"},"modified":"2014-04-23T06:35:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T06:35:31","slug":"my-journey-to-the-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/2014\/04\/23\/my-journey-to-the-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"My Journey to the Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years I remember being told by teachers and mentors to do something you love so that work is something you enjoy doing. \u00a0As cliche as it sounds, it is something I aspire to have as I pursue my vocation. My fear, however, is I won\u2019t ever find that thing I love doing and will have to settle. I also fear the pursuit of my ideal vocation because I know it entails trial and error and it is often easier and more comfortable to just follow then it is to truly search for what makes one fulfilled. In order to find fulfillment, I think you need to be willing to be vulnerable.<\/p>\n

As a child, I watched my dad loyally work \u00a0the typical white collar 9 to 5 job at the same place for over 16 years. I know he is thankful for his job and what it provides him but I do not feel his job is aligned with his passions. But when you are responsible providing for five children, a wife, and remittances to family back home pursuing passions is at the bottom of your priority list. My parent\u2019s main passion has become raising my sibling and I to have all the opportunities they were never able to have. As a daughter of Somali immigrants, my parents sacrificed a lot to give my siblings and I the chances we are blessed with today and for that I am forever indebted to them. My greatest aspiration in life is to make my parent’s proud and provide them with all they have given me and more. However, I do struggle with reconciling my own dreams and aspirations with doing what it takes to make my parents proud.<\/p>\n

Issues of development facing lower development countries have always been something that has captured my curiosity and attention. However, being born and raised in the Silicon Valley, I was far removed from the life my parent\u2019s grew up in. Throughout my childhood, I would hear stories of what it was like for my parents to grow up in Somalia and the realities of life in a country with no stability. Development, especially development within Africa, is something I have had interest in since high school and is an issue very near to my heart since many of my extended family still live in Somalia.<\/p>\n

Visiting Somalia for the first time has been one of the most formative experiences of my life and allowed me to experience the difficulties facing lower development countries as well as reaffirm my interest in development. My parent\u2019s, although nervous about the trip, wanted my sister and I to go so we could learn more about the country we had heard so much about. We stayed in Hargeisa, a city in Somaliland, an autonomous region in Somalia, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991. After coming back from Hargeisa, I knew that I wanted to come back and contribute to Somalia\u2019s development at some point in my professional career. I was inspired by members of the Somali diaspora who returned to Somalia and contributed to the development of their homeland. Particularly, I was incredibly moved by Edna Adan, who is largely credited as the first Somali women to obtain a college degree. After studying nursing, Adan returned to Somalia and created the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in order to improve maternal health in Somalia. I was so inspired as I walked around the hospital which was the first of its kind in the region.<\/p>\n

Along with development, I have always had an interest in business. My interest in business stems back to as long as I can remember. During elementary school, I started my own ice cream shop from my house and stowed my finances underneath my pillow case. Instead of doing what everyone else was doing, my parents would joke that I was always scheming to find the next big thing which could put me ahead of “my competitors”. The running joke in my house was I could sell just about anything to anyone when I was a child. As the bossy big sister, I also considered myself the CEO of my family and my siblings and younger cousins would always run ideas by me. As I grew older, I realized business has always intrigued me because of its power to transform lives and unleash creativity as well as have a detrimental effect on livelihoods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSCN6385\"<\/a>
Water supply for the hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Poster outside the entrance of the hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am attracted to this fellowship for many reasons. First,\u00a0this fellowship will be fundamental in helping me to further evaluate my vocational aspirations and learn more about the power of business to create positive change. I am majoring in Economics and I have an interest in development economics. I am not too sure what the future holds after I graduate from university and what I hope to utilize my degree for. However, I do know that ideally I would like my degree to help me find a career in which I can make a positive change and have an impact on something as well as wake up every morning proud of what I do. Currently, I am interested in a career in the financial services but I also want something which incorporates my interests in international development. I do feel the pressure to get a stable, white collar job behind a cubicle from my parents. However, in my heart I know that, although stability is great when it comes to vocation, a challenge is also very rewarding. \u00a0Next, I am excited to learn about the risks social entrepreneurs take in order to see their dreams materialize and embark on this journey of self discovery and challenges. \u00a0Lastly as a Muslim, I am attracted to this fellowship because of my ability to give back and service others, which is a fundamental part of my faith. Surprisingly, attending a Jesuit university has been very instrumental in helping my strengthen my own faith and learn more about my place in society because unlike my public school background Santa Clara is incredibly faith cognizant. I welcome the new perspectives this fellowship will bring and hope to learn and grow from the people, places, and experiences.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years I remember being told by teachers and mentors to do something you love so that work is something you enjoy doing. \u00a0As cliche as it sounds, it is something I aspire to have as I pursue my vocation. My fear, however, is I won\u2019t ever find that thing I love doing and will … Continue reading My Journey to the Fellowship<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"ilhanahmed","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/author\/ilhanahmed\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"For years I remember being told by teachers and mentors to do something you love so that work is something you enjoy doing. \u00a0As cliche as it sounds, it is something I aspire to have as I pursue my vocation. My fear, however, is I won\u2019t ever find that thing I love doing and will…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ilhanahmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}