Meet Be Social Change member Naseem (she/her/hers), who heard about Be Social Change in 2019, when she was drawn to Be Social Change’s facilitated networking events. As an introvert, she found the facilitation aspect extremely valuable for confidently growing her network. Naseem is now a leader during facilitated networking circles, empowered to be the first one to jump in and comfortable starting the conversation.
Currently, Naseem works as a volunteer at GirlzFTW, a global organization building an international community empowering women and girls through mentorship. Naseem manages mentor programming and training for the organization, and is fueled by her passion for helping women and girls, especially immigrant women.
Initially Naseem started off as a teacher in a public school, teaching English as a second language. Then, she decided to learn how to make sweets and desserts at pastry school – living out many people’s greatest dreams! Naseem is certainly a woman of many talents.
Later, she connected with nonprofits who were looking for people with both food experience and education, a perfect match for Naseem. She adds, “I thought.. when I did my Master’s in education, I thought I’m just going to be a teacher my whole life. I’m gonna be one of those lifers of 30 plus years in just a school setting. And by being at this nonprofit, it kind of opened the door to know that I actually want more, I want to do more and have impact.”
Naseem was first interested in education as a way to inspire other kids, she says, “I wanted other kids growing up to say, ‘I can be a teacher too. Because Miss Kapdi is a teacher and she looks like me.’ So, that was definitely really important to me. And I carry that into the nonprofit work that I do.” While she was managing a workforce training program, Naseem recalls an important encounter during an interview for program applicants during which a West African woman remarked that she felt confident in entering the program due to Naseem’s presence, as another Muslim woman who wears a hijab. Naseem exclaimed, “And I was like, Oh my god, this is exactly why I want to be here and be there for somebody else so that they can feel like they could do it too.”
You can learn more about Naseem here and follow her on LinkedIn here.
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