Rahima (Rizmi) Waheed

I think resilience is definitely the most important factor that has played in my life so far. For example, when I was in my undergrad, even though I had a fully funded scholarship, I had to earn money for myself. I worked 20 hours, and one of my jobs was as a dining assistant, and then I got promoted to dining manager. My other job was in the IT department. That required a lot of physical labor, not just emotional labor, but on top of that, I was also doing my degree in computer information systems. When I was doing my degree, I struggled a lot due to some personal circumstances. At the end of the day, I was able to make it to the Dean's List in my final year, and I was also one of the few Pakistani valedictorians and the commencement speaker of the Class of 2024.

One of the first things I would say is go easy on yourself, but make sure that you become financially independent, and you do not have to rely on someone else to fulfill your finances or your wishes. Second, I genuinely believe in decentering men. When we are young, we have our whole life to be in a relationship with someone else and to have someone as a partner, or just being married to someone, but this first time of our twenties is not going to come back, because this is going to set a foundation of what kind of life you are going to have in your thirties as well. So it is actually very important to work and make sure that you know yourself - what are your triggers, what are your weaknesses, what are your strengths, what kind of environment you thrive in, and what kind of professional journey you can build or your professional journey you can have. I don't really care about dating or anything.

I think one of the biggest challenges in my field right now is that it might sound easy to be working in education technology, however, there is an emotional factor connected to it as well. When you are working in finance, of course there are people whose lives are dependent on you, but it's not the same as education and technology, because your mistake and the way you have built the systems can really affect how students are learning. And if students are not learning efficiently, that could mean it can cause potential harms for their future. So it's important to make sure that whenever a system is being built, you are interviewing teachers as well, and consistently asking parents and students for feedback. The burnout could be high because you are working in a school which demands a lot of physical and emotional labor.

I think resilience is definitely the most important factor that has played in my life so far. For example, when I was in my undergrad, even though I had a fully funded scholarship, I had to earn money for myself. I worked 20 hours, and one of my jobs was as a dining assistant, and then I got promoted to dining manager. My other job was in the IT department. That required a lot of physical labor, not just emotional labor, but on top of that, I was also doing my degree in computer information systems. When I was doing my degree, I struggled a lot due to some personal circumstances. At the end of the day, I was able to make it to the Dean's List in my final year, and I was also one of the few Pakistani valedictorians and the commencement speaker of the Class of 2024.