LEADERSHIP

During my time at the UW, I've been fortunate enough to have been a part of countless experiences from clubs and councils to facilitating my own classes and presenting a research thesis. I've majored in Comparative History of Ideas with a emphasis in Sikh and Punjab history, as well as Molecular Biology. I've always loved learning, and it has been one my guiding principals. I would like to share with you some of things I've been involved with and learned over the past few years, below you'll see some of the major aspects of my education and time at the UW. 

Innovator - The Shere Punjab Society 

Founding the Sher-E-Punjab Society (SPS) at the University of Washington is one of my favorite memories and will continue to be one of the highlights of my time at UW as I reflect on my time here.  I started it with two of my best friends with a simple vision, so build a community of people who wanted to learn more about Punjabi culture and share Punjabi culture with others.  It all started off as a small registered student organization (RSO) and over the past two years we have been able to grow into a small non-profit that continues to share and promote Punjabi culture.  

My work with SPS is largely rooted in my own identity, in coming to UW, like most students do, I struggled with defining myself and understanding who I was.  What helped me through that difficult transition was looking back at my cultural roots.  Punjabi was the first language I learned, and as a first generation college student born in the US to immigrant parents, being Punjabi was a large part of my life growing up.  However as a grew I tried to distance myself from that identity, I was becoming more Americanized or Westernized, in the process forgetting my own history.  I would listen to Greenday instead of Gurdas Mann, I would eat pepperoni pizza instead of samosas and chutney,  I would want to wear my Jordans instead of Punjabi juttis.  In coming to UW I had to confront these issues and rediscover my Punjabi identity, and I fell in love it with again. 

With SPS I’ve been able to accomplish so much is the past two years.  We’ve held mixers at UW where we shared mango lassi with students and staff, while also sharing aspects of Punjabi culture.  We’ve held sports tournaments to raise money for our partner NGO’s back in Punjab.  We’ve held New Year’s parties where all proceeds go to an NGO in Punjab.  With SPS I’ve started the UW’s first Sikh Studies Research Group.  There is still so much that I know this organization can accomplish, and I can’t wait to see the future holds! 

In working with SPS I’ve had to refine a lot of my leadership skills.  The first big one was being able to generate ideas, as a club hosting events is one of the largest contributing factors to long terms success.  Hosting and planning events that members of the community wanted to attend was a challenge, and we’ve met that challenge.  I learned how to use SPS to empower others, and how to use the organization as a platform to share what I knew with others.  So much of SPS’s success is rooted in our ability to work as group and a team, group development was something that I had to help facilitate in helping people find those that they would work well with.

Being with SPS has taught me a lot over the past two years.  Many of the skills that I built and refined here I know apply to other parts of my life and future.  Most importantly though, SPS taught me that I want to be an active and engaged member in my own community.  I want to use what I’ve learned with my time at SPS and continue to grow my leadership skills and find new ways to help SPS preserve and promote Punjabi culture. 

Advocate - ASACS

I finished my freshman year with a lot scars and battle wounds. It was the year that I made a lot of mistakes and learned what kind of experience I wanted to have at the UW.  With becoming a CHID major, I learned that the small size of the department was one of it’s strengths.  My advisor in CHID knew me on a personal level and they were aware of my goals and aspirations, and Cynthia passed along a great opportunity to me.  I applied to be on the Arts and Sciences Advisory Council for Students (ASACS), was was lucky enough to be selected to serve on the council starting my sophomore year.  

The year I started on ASACS, it was the first year of the council and the council was still learning about what it’s role at the UW would be.  I am very proud to say that I was there to help the council find it’s path and build some of it’s guiding principals.  I stayed on ASACS for the remainder of my UW experience, as the vice-chair during my junior year and then as chair during my senior year.  

As an advisory council, ASACS places a great deal of importance on serving to advise the Dean of our college on a large amount issues. Ranging from TA salaries and advising services, to capital projects and reviewing budgets.  However, this does not necessarily mean that ASACS is there to represent the voice of the students of the UW, that is where ASUW comes in.  We have worked with ASUW in the past when it comes to drafting recommendations and having conversations, yet we are very independent and see our roles in the UW as very different. That being said, when searching for members to join our council we cast a wide net to all departments to find as many qualified students as we can, that way when we craft our recommendations and meet with the Dean we can share as many different experiences as possible. 

During my time on ASACS I’ve been able to accomplish a great deal of things.  Some of the largest and most important issues have been; eliminating online course fees, advocating for TA salary increases, supporting the Life Sciences Building, reviewing advising services for undergrads, and helping form other college councils at UW.  Though all of these issues have not directly impacted my own experiences at UW, each issue has taught me something new about what things are important to those around me.

Working with such a diverse council of the past three years has made me find a real calling for policy and advocacy work.  

Mentor - First Year Programs 

 Being at the UW I used to think that learning only happened in the classroom, or at least the learning that mattered. I’m glad that I was wrong. Choosing to become a FIG leader during my junior and senior years was one of best decisions I’ve made while at UW. The true value of my experience comes down to one principal, wanting to share what I know with others with the goal my experiences being able to help them.  

As a FIG leader I learned that teaching is all about sharing.  It comes down to sharing your own experiences, sharing what you know, and sharing what others know.  When I would work with students in the classroom, I tried to structure the class in a way that students would feel comfortable sharing with each other.  I’ve learned over the past four years that sometimes the best resources you have are your peers, and you need to be able to open up and share with them.  This type of collaborative learning environment is something I strived to make every day in class because these environments have been the ones where I’ve learned the most.  I’ve never done particularly well in larger lecture style courses, and I would always go through the movements of doing clickers, and cramming for multiple choice midterms, but never really could see myself learning anything.  Classes where I was able to work in groups, share, and learn together, really made my aware of what I was learning, and made me fall in love with school again.  

As a FIG leader my primary objective was to help first year students transition from their pervious school to the UW and college in general.  Most of my students came from high schools, this made tailoring my class a little easier because they all came from similar backgrounds. Having done it for two years, both years were different but some commonalities were; helping students pick majors, plan out their next few quarters, find out about professional development opportunities, as well as find out where all the toilets on campus were.  Over the two years I helped 48 students find out what they wanted to get out of UW, many of them have continued to stay in contact, and I’ve continued to help mentor them.  

I’m proud of how I was able to help so many students, but I’m more proud of the fact that I helped students make their own decisions.  Most of my students just needed someone to bounce ideas off of and ask for feedback on an idea they had, and I’m glad I was there to be that for them.  That being said, being a FIG leader taught me a lot of what it means to plan a class/course, time management, grading ethics, public speaking, and mentorship.  

From the lessons I’ve learned teaching FIGs, I’ve been able to apply what I’ve learned to other projects and aspects of my life.  Firstly, I used my experience being at the front of a classroom and founded the UW Sikh Studies Research Group, a group of students that is partnered with CHID and History where I planned and helped facilitated a 2 credit course on studying approaches towards studying Sikh/Punjab studies.  Additionally being an instructor and peer mentor, I’ve learned that in my professional career as a dentist, I will be in a position where I will be empowering my patients to take care of their own oral health.  As a dentist I need to share what I know about oral health, and tailor that information to best suit the needs of my patients, similar to how I tailored my various courses to address the needs of the students in my classes.