Her Story
About Nazaneen
My career in higher education began in 2014 when I was still in college, taking on student role positions where I mentored in two different organizations. I also worked on campus in various capacities, including as an office assistant and later as a graduate assistant. Since becoming a professional academic advisor in 2019, I've dedicated myself to supporting students in their academic journey. Currently, I advise undergraduate students pursuing a social work major at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where my key responsibilities include helping students enroll for classes, discussing their academic plans, retaining students, and guiding them to graduation. I also contribute to recruitment efforts and meet with prospective students. What I'm most proud of is my consistent success in student retention and re-enrollment. Since starting in my current college, which is my second college at the university, I always meet or exceed our enrollment number goals quickly and consistently rank at the top for re-enrollment with students. This demonstrates how effectively I've been supporting the students I advise, helping them return for another semester and progress toward their degrees. Beyond basic advising, I focus on helping students think strategically about their overall goals and interests. Many of my students end up pursuing additional programs, minors, double majors, or even dual degrees in addition to their primary social work major. These are opportunities they may not have considered initially, but through my guidance on double-counting credits and understanding elective course requirements, they're able to maximize their educational experience and align their studies with their broader career aspirations.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nazaneen
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my family. My parents immigrated from Afghanistan in the 1970s and 80s when my grandfather was a student in America working on his PhD, so education in my family has been very important. My parents did not go to school in the United States and do not have a collegiate education level, so they really pushed education on me and my siblings. I'm proud to say that all of us - my older brother and my two younger sisters, a total of four of us - we all have our bachelor's degree, and my brother, one of my sisters, and I all have our master's degree. I think the reason why I focused on a career in higher education was because my grandfather was a PhD professor, and then I have two aunts that work in higher education. I really hung out with them a lot when I was younger, and even now, and they have truly been an inspiration to me in regards to what I can do with this path. Seeing their professional careers really inspired me to move forward with this path. So I think family overall is the biggest reason why I do what I do. But I have found my own passion for this career in higher education. I do really think that education is important.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to not be afraid to do something different and keep growing in your career. This advice is so relevant right now, especially with all the different conversations in higher education right now.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice that I would give to young women that are entering the higher education industry is to follow your passion. If this is the passion that you want to pursue, move forward with it, because budget is just a big problem in general in many careers, higher education in particular, and it's very hard to move forward with coming to work every day and being pleasant when it's not a passion of yours. If it is, you'll do it, but if it's not, you're gonna get burnt out easily, maybe you have a bad attitude. So do it if it's your passion.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge, and there's probably a challenge in many different fields, but budget. We are just having such a hard time retaining staff and faculty because of lack of funding, especially with state positions. I think that's the biggest challenge in this economy right now. Also, just professional growth, because of budget, it's hard to promote different staff members. At universities, in particular mine, I've been eligible for a promotion for almost 2 years now, and I haven't been promoted because of budget. I try to move forward because I love what I do, but it is tough.
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