From the Arabic Classroom to Community Service and Leadership
Greetings Everyone!
My name is Junaid Mohammed, and I had the privilege of graduating from Loyola this past spring with a degree in Cellular/Molecular Neuroscience and a triple minor in Psychology, Biology, and Arabic. Looking back, my undergraduate journey has been transformative in many capacities. One of the most important principles behind this was my approach to learning—to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. In practice, this meant that I would take any classes I found interesting simply because they were interesting. This is how I ended up getting the Arabic minor, in fact. One day, Professor Sawsan pulled me aside to tell me that I needed only one more class to get the minor, so I thought, might as well. I had been taking Arabic classes simply for the pleasure of learning them. Similarly, I took many classes that never really fulfilled any requirement, but I found them interesting. Those were the classes I enjoyed the most.
Learning the Arabic language (and I am still learning) greatly impacted my personal growth. Professor Sawsan may not realize this, but I was inspired greatly by her. For one, she pushed all of us to be our best selves and never pushed anyone harder than she was willing to push herself. This is a principle I attempt to embody every single day. Second was the importance of active versus passive change, of the self and of the community. Active change is harder and demands more, but the fruits are far greater.
But beyond this, I learned the importance of integrity, service, and global awareness to name a few. These played a big role in how I interacted with the Loyola community in my time there. I was extensively involved in various clubs and initiatives. I like to think I had an impact. The closest friendships I made were in my senior year when I was most heavily involved in the community. The culmination (for now) was the formation of my nonprofit organization, College Success Mentors, dedicated to fostering and maintaining student excellence through individualized one-on-one student-mentor interaction. My team (image attached), in fact, consists primarily of students from my Arabic classes.
My encouragement to you all is to reframe your perspective regarding the smaller journeys in your college career from something you have to do to something you want to do. And it's okay to pursue what you want to do. Along the way, think about what kind of person you are becoming and actively attempt to be better. Finally, learn from all of the people and experiences around you that we are foremost people of the world before anything else. Together, these attitudes will take you far, personally and professionally.
