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List Organizational
Experience within the MSA-UMD (include positions, responsibilities, and
accomplishments, please be specific, outlining in
detail what you individually did/accomplished):
This past
year, I was the sisterhood co-chair. My responsibilities included planning
social gatherings and community service events that were open to MSA members and
any other interested students.
In particular, I helped organize several unique social events, including a ski
trip, the MSA film fest, and a flag football game. While holding the sisterhood
co-chair position, I worked in all phases of event preparation and hosting. I
feel that continuing to plan such events will be crucial to maintaining the MSA
as a dynamic and creative organization that appeals to a wider demographic. In
this sense, these social events served an important recruitment role.
Additionally, I assisted in planning various community service events such as
Habitat For Humanity, Martin Luther King Day, and a Women’s Cancer Walk around
the Detroit Zoo. Our role was to discover community service events, maintain
contact with event organizers, and ensure that MSA members participated in these
activities.
For each event, we also kept track of the MSA members who participated in these
events.
List Work/Volunteer Experience (include positions, responsibilities
and accomplishments in other organizations on or off campus)
I have done a great deal of
volunteering in the past few years. I spent a great deal of time volunteering at
the Islamic Sunday School at our local mosque. Every Sunday morning, I worked
under a teacher to help her teach a large group of kids in a class setting. I
helped any students that needed assistance when she wasn’t available.
Also, I volunteered at an
after-school tutor session at a middle school for a year. I would help teach
students and assist them with homework after school three times a week.
These
experiences helped me appreciate the need to give back to the community, and
also helped me in developing my own character.
What are your organizational strengths? Weaknesses?
Organizational skills I possess include being able to work well with others in a
group setting. I enjoy working towards a goal together and look forward to, if I
get elected, working with the President and the rest of the executive board to
accomplish the goals of MSA. I tend to work well with other people as opposed to
working by myself on projects and being a part of the executive board, although
we have our own responsibilities, everyone works together to fulfill them.
Weaknesses include having to stick to my own time schedule. I set a time
schedule for myself and tend to stick to it very well. With school experiences
in the past when I’ve had to work with a group, it has gotten a bit tedious just
because everyone works on their own time schedule. But with MSA this hasn’t been
an issue yet, and I hope it will not become one.
How do you cope and work under pressure (please answer in full
thoughts/sentences providing real-life examples/situations)?
I tend to
work really well under pressure. I stress out easily, but I think that only
helps me work better. In the past, putting things off (such as writing papers,
or studying for an exam) until the last minute has taught me that time
management is key in any kind of work setting. I’m a strong believer that if you
don’t manage your time properly you will often find yourself working in a
stressful situation, which for most people is hard to cope with. But I also
believe that working under pressure builds character.
If I am to be elected, as vice president I would plan to manage my time wisely
so I am never in a situation where I am overstressing myself for something that
wasn’t stressful to begin with.
How well do you multi task (please answer in full thoughts/sentences providing
real-life examples/situations)?
I often
find myself in situations where I am multi-tasking. Results probably aren’t as
good as they could be, but I am still capable of managing more than one thing at
a time. Obviously I work better on something when it has my full attention, but
when in need of multi-tasking, I am capable of doing so. Doing MSA work in the
past has required me to multi-task because when planning events, there are many
aspects that you need to be thinking of while planning. Event planning in
general requires a lot of multi-tasking.
How do you deal with criticism (please answer in full thoughts/sentences
providing real-life examples/situations)?
When it
comes to criticism, I understand that it is impossible to please everyone,
needless to say there will always be someone criticizing your work and the way
you handle situations. The idea to handle criticism is to work your best, so
even if someone is to criticize you, they can’t complain that you could have
worked harder. Going to public school teaches majority of students to deal with
criticism because everyone deals with criticism at some point. The objective is
to understand that there are always people critiquing you, whether it is in a
work or school setting, or even in a social setting. For me, hearing criticism
isn’t a big deal anymore. I usually can be a pretty good judge of the job I’ve
done, and criticism will only help me work to improve.
What will your schedule look like in the 2008-2009 school year? How many
hours can you dedicate to the MSA if you are elected? List any
external factors such as parents, school, or work that might inhibit your
work.
2009-2010
will be my junior year at UMD. Although I will be busy with schoolwork, I will
still have a significant amount of time to contribute to the MSA. I don’t plan
on working or being too actively involved in any other student organization,
which ensures that MSA will be one of my main focuses. I will be taking only
13-14 credit hours of classes. I do live at home with my parents, but I am still
on campus for the majority of my day. Any free time I have I plan on devoting
towards MSA, since I am running for a position that requires a great deal of
responsibility. Since I’m not working and do not have any other serious
commitments (other than family), I will have enough free time to devote to the
MSA.
What does MSA mean to you? Why are you getting involved with MSA, other than the
fact that you were nominated?
MSA to me is an organization
that is working to spread the word about Islam. Living in a society where we are
seen as a minority requires us to actively work to maintain our Islamic
identity. We need a place for Muslim students to be amongst other Muslims to
combat this isolation. I became involved because I think it’s important in this
modern age to keep Muslims involved with their Ummah, and also to educate
non-Muslims and refute any of their stereotypes.
What do you feel the MSA executive board positions you are running for entails,
and why do you feel you are capable of holding such a position?
As vice
president, I realize that I will be a representative of the MSA to the campus
community and beyond. I also understand the importance of maintaining a
professional image and working efficiently with the president to make sure
everything flows smoothly. Although this position will require a significant
time commitment, I will be able to fulfill that responsibility since I do not
have any major time commitments aside from my schoolwork, and because I have
strong time management skills. I also enjoy working in a team and I feel that I
am a responsible, professional and mature individual.
What are the main reasons you want to be elected as an MSA executive board
member? Include future plans you have in respect to the position.
I have
cherished my involvement with the MSA, and being a board member has been
especially enjoyable because I love planning events and working with a group of
people toward the shared goal. As a Muslim, I feel that that MSA involvement is
of great importance in maintaining our Muslim identity in a society where it
isn't always easy to do that. I hope that we can continue our goal of letting
people know who we are and maintaining a strong presence in the campus
community. In doing that, I hope we can get Muslims as well as non-Muslims
excited about the MSA and Islam.
If you lose the elections, what will your course of action be towards the
organization (please specify)?
A
successful MSA requires the contribution of many volunteers beyond the executive
board. After having a great year on the executive board, I would love to be
involved with planning any events in any capacity regardless of whether I am
elected for next year's board. I will still remain involved with the MSA, just
as I did before I was appointed to the executive board. I cannot see myself
going from being involved in all aspects of the MSA to not being involved at
all. InshAllah I still plan on attending every meeting, social event, community
service activity or education event that I can. It has been a truly great year,
and although I would love to contribute even more as vice president, I will not
miss the opportunity to be a part of what will undoubtedly be another strong
year for the MSA next year.
If you are elected, will your parent(s) be supportive of your work with the
organization?
My parents
will be very supportive of my involvement with the MSA. They understand and
endorse the need to spread awareness of the MSA and Islam. They will support me,
along with the organization, in any way they can. Both my older siblings were
active members of MSA when they were undergraduates. In fact, one of my siblings
was president of the Wayne State University MSA, and my parents were always
supportive of his work. They also understand that the position I am running for
comes with a great deal of responsibility and workload. They have always been
supportive of any of my work, whether it was related to school, or any of my
extracurricular activities in high school and college.
What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of MSA-UMD?
The
greatest strength that we possess as a student organization is the number of
people that get involved. MSA-UMD’s biggest event is Unity In Diversity, which
has been credited as the biggest student-organized event in Michigan. Along with
this, Alhumdulillah we have a great number of Muslims on campus, which allows us
to be a very active MSA and hold large scale events with high turnouts.
One weakness I see is the idea of having two separate Muslim organizations on
campus. In my opinion, we aren't portraying a positive image to non-Muslims. We
should work to unify ourselves before we can honestly claim that we are
attempting to unify ourselves with the rest of the campus community.
Have you fully read & understood the constitution, have you specifically
understood your duties/responsibilities?
I have
completely read and understood the MSA-UMD constitution, and I thoroughly
understand what my responsibilities would be if I were to be elected as vice
president. I understand that it is a position with great responsibility and I
will be someone who represents MSA around campus and with other student
organizations. Along with all this, I know that I will be helping other
executive board members with their tasks, and working with the president to make
sure things run efficiently.
How well do you work with others? Give an example of when you led a team and
how you delegated responsibilities and ensure team cohesiveness.
When I
volunteered at an Islamic Sunday School it was important to manage a large group
of students. One of the biggest roles with helping a teacher was keeping the
cohesiveness in a class setting, so that students learned along with enjoying
their time spent there.
I tend to work well with others as long as they work on a timed schedule, and
don’t procrastinate until the last minute. As long as we can get work done, we
can start planning for any future events or goals we need to accomplish.
Which Islamic school of thought do you subscribe to, and what is you viewpoint
in regards to other schools of thought?
I subscribe to the Sunni
school of thought. My viewpoint of other schools of thought is that although our
beliefs are slightly different, in the end we all still have the same goal.
Through MSA, we are all here to work towards spreading Islam. As long as we
understand that we have the same goal, we can all work together to achieve it. I
have always been someone who has never differentiated between people with
different schools of thought and myself, and I don’t see myself doing so now,
especially in any kind of work setting. |
