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Author: sazianowshin

Finals Are Over, Now What?: Sazia Nowshin

June 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Sazia Nowshin, MBA/SID’22

Ahh, the time is here (for finals to be over with). These past couple of months have been a challenge, with short breaks, long exams, and a pandemic happening ALL AT ONCE. It will probably take us all some time to truly recover from this whirlwind of a semester. But, there are some things we can do to momentarily let us escape the struggles and hard work we have put into being present during these trying times:

  1. Literally escape. Go on a vacation (safely, vaccinated, and per CDC guidelines) and leave your office chair with the indent on it from hours of zoom class. Even if it is a road trip, in which you will be confined to your car and basking in the glory of nature, the escape will be worth it. And remember, a vacation may be a financial investment, but the ROI on your mental health could be worth it.
  2. Return your textbooks, or even sell them. Perhaps this should have been the most pertinent one to address, but vacation is on my mind.
  3. DO COURSE EVALUATIONS. Actually, I changed my mind. This is the most important and should be done as soon as possible. We all want our grades on time, and we want our professors to know how much value we received from their classes and their instruction. I know I was excited to fill mine out to gush about the wonderful TAs I had this semester.
  4. Read a book. If you don’t want to escape via vacation, fulfill your wanderlust instead in a sea of words. A literary escape is just as valuable. Next on my list is All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage!
  5. Talk to family, especially if you haven’t interacted much with the time you had to dedicate to your studies during this time.
  6. Take up a new hobby. Granted, hobbies can take time and dedication but that is why it is important to take up something you are passionate about! I will personally explore the world of programming and try to learn a language or two (like Python) before the next semester.
  7. Sleep. I know you haven’t. I know I haven’t. I know we are all contributing to a detrimental cycle of mass sleep deprivation and we must do what we can to catch up!
  8. Just breathe. You finished. You did that. Relax and take the weight of your classes off your shoulders because you overcame the most pivotal exams of the semester.

Facing Challenges This Semester

May 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Sazia Nowshin, MBA/SID’22

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced this semester was spring break, or lack thereof. Having just graduated from my undergraduate institution last May, I was accustomed to having a week-long spring break that consists of going somewhere to escape my current struggles at school. With the exception of the pandemic, spring break was always a time for me and my family to go to New York City to visit family. I never realized that graduate school meant that I would graduate from week-long breaks to a one-day break. Of course, this accounts for the time during the break that I would be doing work, in which then the break does not really become a break. But, I digress!

As much as I would love to have longer breaks, the one that I received this semester taught me the value of relaxation and doing absolutely nothing. Yes, nothing. Nothing can mean lying in bed all day, binging Schitt’s Creek, or playing with your roommate’s dog (which doubles as pet therapy). That being said, having this short break allows me to do nothing as well as time to think. Yes, there is not much time to plan and book a whirlwind vacation on some tropical resort, but it alternatively gives me time to think about my role in my program. It gives me time to think about all the places I can go with my degrees, and where exactly I will end up. Nothing does not have to mean nothing. In graduate school, we make the most out of what we have, even if that includes nothing.

I used to be so much more excited about spring break, and now I look forward to a day off of Zoom. But, I see it as a rite of passage, as a form of “adulting” of sorts. This does not mean I will never find myself on a beach in Hawaii, but it does mean I am finding ways to keep myself motivated in graduate school while focusing on my studies. With current circumstances, much of the time we spend is indoors or in limited interaction. That being said, even if you want to do “nothing,” you always have the option to do it from a more tropical location.

 

Missing Home-cooked Meals: From a Very Hungry Graduate Student (Sazia Nowshin)

May 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Sazia Nowshin, MBA/SID’22

Let’s face it, being responsible for yourself is not fun. The luxuries of living at “home” are far gone when one moves away for college, work, or for any other opportunity. I used to revel in the spoils of living with my parents in my undergraduate career, with access to free laundry, home-cooked meals (the lack of which is currently the bane of my existence), and a queen bed. However, when I had to move away to attend Heller last August, I had no idea what I was in for. 

Having lived at home all my life until graduate school had its perks. I had the privilege of waking up every morning to the smell of some new meal my mother was cooking or a fresh cup of chai. When I had dirty clothes, I simply put them in the hamper and did the laundry downstairs in the basement. Little did I know that these would be luxuries compared to my current circumstances. 

Who would have thought that the toughest part of moving away was moving away from my mother’s chicken curry with purple top turnips? The gravy she cooks it in is thinner and slightly spicier, saturating the softened turnips and making the chicken pieces fall off the bone. I cannot guarantee that I am not salivating while typing this but the nostalgia is so strong, I can smell it right now. To cope with this, I exhausted the many options available on Uber Eats, Grubhub, Doordash, and Caviar. If I am missing some services, please let me know… although I’d rather not know, just so I still afford rent. Leaving behind my mother’s cooking in Scranton, I explored the plethora of cuisines found in the Greater Boston area. From my favorite, the Bittersweet Shoppe on Newbury St., to Kimchipapi, I have had a taste of food that was not available back at home. However, there are times when I fondly remember my mother’s handmade pithas or even, at times, her simple chicken curry. 

To mitigate this, I started making food my mother would make at home in my apartment. FaceTime, my savior this semester, came in handy whenever the gravy to one of the curries I was making had the wrong viscosity or looked “off.” My mother, the hard-working woman she is, would answer the call at all times to guide me through the process. I remade her recipes and came up with ones of my own. The taste is not the same, but it is something. I know the journey life has taken me is one towards success, but I can never forget those who protected me throughout that journey. Brandeis is offering me an enriched and wonderful education, but it did take away eating my mother’s meals. It is a very difficult trade-off but I have been able to manage with the help of video chats and phone calls. It is not all that bad, though. I am sure there is a return on investment hiding there somewhere…

A Letter to My Future Self (to read upon graduation): Sazia Nowshin

April 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Sazia Nowshin, MBA/SID’22

Dear Future Saz,

Congratulations on graduating with a Social Impact MBA and a Master’s in Sustainable International Development from The Heller School! Looks like you’ve done it again. You’ve graduated with a mouthful of interdisciplinary degrees! All jokes aside, all I can ask you is how?

How did you do it, Sazia? How did you overcome the trials and tribulations of life while juggling two years of intense coursework? Finish the Strategic Management Midterm paper? Figure out which organization to do your team consulting project on? There’s so many courses and assignments we can ask you about but what matters the most is that you did it. You, a first-generation Bangladeshi-American, did it. You, a Muslim immigrant, did it. 

These past two years must have “Zoom-ed” by. With your entire first year being online and in a format you struggled to grasp at times to being in person for your second Master’s, your experience at Heller was truly one-of-a-kind. At times, it felt like weeks of classes go by in a blink, in others, you can’t wait for the weekend. I hope you were able to take time for yourself during these weeks and got a chance to breathe. I know old Saz would not shy away from retail therapy at the Natick Mall, but I do hope her future version engages in more frugal forms of self-care. 

Now comes the next big step in your life – choosing a career. Before your parents ask, ask yourself. What are you going to do now? Your interdisciplinary degrees open you up to a multitude of professional opportunities. I remember old Saz coming into Heller with the hopes of refining her skillset to become an international humanitarian aid worker. Now, I assume your interests and skills have equipped you for other routes. After two semesters, I learned so much about making an impact on a smaller scale, which stemmed from experiences like serving on the board of a local non-profit organization. At the end of the day, I know Sazia’s goals and aspirations will transcend time. They will transcend old Saz and future Saz. I want to serve underserved communities, and give a voice to those who aren’t equipped with the faculties to do so. I know future Saz will want to uphold these values. 

The possibilities are endless, and it’s scary. But it’s also so exciting. I cannot wait to see how you implement the valuable knowledge and wisdom you gained these past two years into your career. But never forget, the journey is sometimes more beautiful than the destination! Never forget the professors who left an impact on you, the specialized courses you never thought of taking but ended up loving, and the friendships that blossomed in your cohort over the past two years but will remain a lifetime. Congratulations again, Saz. Be proud of yourself.

Hello Heller!: Sazia Nowshin’s Acceptance Story

March 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Sazia Nowshin, MBA/SID’22

One fateful Friday in late February of last year, I was leaving my workplace to go back to campus and received an email from Brandeis regarding an “update on my application.” As I was walking down the stairs to the backdoor exit, I opened the email and went to my application. Thinking back on it, I’m sure I should have been more nervous. But at the moment, I was so tuckered out from a long day’s work, I opened up the email as casually as possible. However, when I discovered that I got into Heller, I stopped in my tracks immediately. I remember texting my closest friends and FaceTiming my parents. 

“Congrats on brandice,” my friend told me, whose ability to remember the school I applied to mattered more than spelling Brandeis wrong. 

I remember my sister being ecstatic over text, and my parents having extremely different reactions. My father’s first question immediately was “how much does it cost?,” a question that Heller Admissions can help answer for prospective students and parents (please don’t judge my shameless plug). My mother, on the other hand, was bawling at the idea of me moving to a different state for school. Nonetheless, I believe they were all proud of me.

Once I received my decision from Heller, I was faced with a difficult decision. I had to choose between this program and another social policy program in New York. Either way, I would have had to move because I had lived at home all my life, needed to change my environment to really focus on my graduate education, and experience new things in life overall. After weighing my options and consulting with many people whose opinions I value, I ended choosing Heller. 

The biggest factor that caused me to hesitate with Brandeis was name recognition. The other program was from a school that all my friends knew and had a high ranking in social policy programs, and no one but my professors had known of Brandeis’ esteemed academic reputation. But name recognition only gets you so far, in my opinion. One should choose their program for what it truly offers. With Heller’s program, I would be able to experience the vast opportunities the Greater Boston area has to offer and the diverse student body of Heller. The program at Heller was also better for me in terms of financial aid and the opportunity to network with those in the international development community, which is the field I strive to have a career in. 

When it comes to choosing which program or school one wants to attend, what really matters is if one believes they can make the most out of where they are attending.

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