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Hi, I'm Nathania Montes,
Dean of Student Affairs
at College of DuPage.
And I'm joined today by our trustee,
our Student Trustee, Ayesha.
Ayesha, thank you so much for coming in today.
--You're so welcome. I'm so excited.
--So I have a few questions for you as we all get to know you
a little bit better.
And it's so great to be here with you.
So tell me a little bit about yourself.
--Well, as you know, my name is Ayesha Shafiuddin.
I was an immigrant to the country
back in 2012 with my family.
I immigrated here from Saudi Arabia.
And then I became a citizen of America in 2018.
So I've had a long journey of assimilating as well as acclimating myself
and adapting to the culture, as well as learning the language.
And that has been a process and a journey on its own.
But it has given me great insight and perspective on what
the type of person I want to become, the opportunities that I see around me.
And it gives me a lot of perspective.
--Well, that's great and happy 10 year anniversary, then.
--Thank you. --That's wonderful.
So tell me a little bit
about why you decided to run for the student trustee position?
--When I first came to COD, I noticed that
there was so much activity happening on campus and that excited me.
It gave me a lot of pride as a student of COD in college,
and the College of DuPage.
But the reason why
I decided to run for student trustee is because, I noticed that even though
there was so much activity happening, a lot of students would not partake.
They would go straight to class and then straight home.
And I was also stuck in this routine until someone reached out to me.
So my initial goal and it is still my goal, is to increase
student engagement, especially with our college activities.
--What do you hope to accomplish this year as our student trustee,
given that you're representing close to 22,000 students?
--Now, I know that there are a lot of different types of students at COD,
and what my goals are, is to involve a lot of students on the activities
that happen on campus and create the sense of belonging in our community.
Our community college, College of DuPage is a gem for our DuPage County.
And I know this because I've been, I've seen our faculty go out of its way
to treat our students with top care and quality.
So what I really want to do is show students exactly how they can get
the resources, the opportunities and feel that sense of belonging.
--So a lot of students describe sort of feeling scared or feeling a little anxious
in terms of getting involved and trying to figure out where they fit in,
in terms of different clubs, different organizations, different events.
So what advice would you have for them in terms of getting past some of that fear?
-- I feel you. [LAUGHING]
I was there myself, too.
And it's it's not easy to, you know, go out of your comfort zone.
I would tell those students, just take a leap of faith, believe
in the possibility that you might learn something walking away
and you probably will.
You know, whether it's learning something about yourself
or learning about the opportunity
that you're involved yourself in, you will always learn.
And if that is the mindset,
the positive attitude that you have, you will walk away happy.
--That's wonderful.
And I think it also speaks to, you can learn a lot, both in your classes
and so much more outside of your classes as well.
--Absolutely. Yes.
--So it's wonderful that you got involved in such a challenging time,
you know, in terms of the pandemic and how people are sort of getting involved.
So what advice would you have for students in terms of how to be successful at COD,
during these challenging times where there's a lot of transition that's going on?
--I would say my number one advice for that, is to get to know people.
I think the pandemic has impacted all of us in a negative way,
especially with our social anxiety.
I've noticed that patterns of anxiety have increased
over the pandemic, and especially on our mental health.
And I know that our mental health is very serious.
But the way we can overcome it, is creating that sense of belonging,
making sure that we're reaching out and connecting with other people.
The more you get to know the community, the more involved that you will feel.
And I think that students can overcome these challenges
because they can rely upon their friends.
--Well, students are very lucky to have you representing them.
So how can students connect with you or bring their concerns to you?
I am also a Student Leadership Council Officer.
So you can, students can find me at the SLC office,
which is the SSC 2214 office and it is in the BIC building.
You can also find me online.
I have a couple of social media platforms.
I'm most active on my Instagram, which is
_lady_ayesha, and it is my personal account.
But I have it left public so that anyone can DM with any concerns at any time.
--Great, because I'm sure that lots of students are going to want to connect.
Thank you again for taking the time to meet with me today.
And I really hope that we can have more conversations like this in the future.
--Of course. It's been a pleasure.
--Take care.
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