I believe life is a journey, and this is my story so far
Growing up in 3 cities
I spent my childhood in different parts of Pakistan and got to experience the diversity within my own country
Finding love for culture & travel
During high school, I got selected to take part in a cultural exchange program to Japan.
This was my first international trip which made me fall in love with traveling and develop an appreciation for learning about different cultures.
Challenging my inner introvert
During my undergraduate I decided to step outside my comfort zone and build my leadership skills.
I joined the LUMS Media Arts Society and got to:
- Learn cinematography & video editing
- Lead 2 documentaries
- Lead different departments of marketing, logistics, events
- Organize the 2 largest events in Pakistan
- Lead a society of 300+ students
Finding a global community
During my junior year I got selected to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration as an international student scholar.
Here I got a chance to connect with some amazing women which led to the start of building and growing the global community of Pakistani Women in Computing (PWiC) over the next two years.
Since then I have regularly been involved with the tech community, gotten selected as a hopper twice and also volunteer every year as a reviewer at GHC.
Building a student community
As part of PWiC, I led several efforts of organizing events to help and mentor students.
I held the first PWiC event in Lahore before leaving for graduate school.
After moving to the US, I took the initiative of building a global ambassador program to scale the effort.
I am grateful for my mentors who believed in me and pushed me to turn my vision into reality!
Making my dreams happen!
After my undergraduate, I got into the Purdue UX program and was able to fund myself by working as a teaching assistant for the two years.
My work in the community also led me to winning the Google WTM scholarship which helped me pay off the loans from my undergrad.
It was tough but I have learned that life has a way of working itself out, you just got to hang in there and not give up!
I am excited for the next chapter of my life and looking forward to see where life takes me from here!
