MUBASSHIRA AHMED
I care about your experiences at Middlebury
WHY CO-CHAIR OF COMMUNITY COUNCIL ?
A little about me
I’m am first generation immigrant and college student. I'm originally from Bangladesh and immigrated to NYC 7 years ago. Growing up in a developing country along with being a women of color in US I dealt with a lot of social injustice pertaining to sexism, misogyny, racism, colorism, and islamophobia, which shaped my life to be passionate to make changes in my community. So here I am running for Co-Chair of Community Council to better our small community.
Academics: Double major Computer Science and Psychology
Interests: Philosophy, photography, Business, Art, volleyball, Softball, dance
Political activism I’m passionate about: Police brutality, DACA, #Metoo movement, climate justice, healthcare,income gap, racial injustice, Equity
RELEVANT EXPERIENCES
PALANA SOCIAL HOUSE, TREASURER
Initiate mandatory green dot training every semester as requirement for continued membership to create a safer environment and supporting to create an infrastructure that keeps track of all guests and reports ill behavior.
Serve as a formal liaison to Middlebury College to negotiate annual allocation budget. Record and approve all financial transaction initiated.
Ensure PALANA’s adherence to all fiscal policies associated with social house and organization.
Working with board members on holding community dinners, and address student voiced issues within the community.
Collaborate with other student orgs on campus to set up and organize events such as Block Party.
SGA RELATIONSHIP AND SEXUAL RESPECT COMMITTEE
Work with Title IX office, and green dot at Middlebury College to address bias incidents and support to implement consent training across campus.
Work with local community to initiate menstruation drive, and spread sex education and share survivor stories.
Collaborating on a Vending machine project that gives students easier access to reproductive and sex safe products.
G PLAYERS, SOFTBALL LEAGUE, BRONX NY
Coach high school and middle school students softball
Lead Anti Bullying Workshops
Teach young women about the importance of leadership while working on individualized self confidence projects
Teach young women about sex education
Raise funding for underprivileged youth
BROWN MILLER GROUP, NEW YORK, NY
Communicate with NYC immigrant local community on the importance of completing the census.
Helped disabled individuals and first generation immigrants as a Bengali translator to fill out the US Census.
ALUMNI OFFICE, CA APP PROJECT ASSISTANT
Manage Middlebury community reunion projects
Work with alumni, College officials, students, and parents.
Handle confidential files
Manage communications for the Alumni office.
EARTH MATTER, GOVERNOR’S ISLAND
Teaching children to compost, taking care of a garden (planting, watering, creating fertilizer).
Recycling, separating trash to find materials for compost, taking care of animals (feeding chicken, goat), and farm responsibilities.
Encourage and market green initiatives across NYC.
STUDENTS COUNCIL, CENTRAL PARK EAST HIGH SCHOOL, NY
Address and solve student voiced issues projects such as changing the dress code as school policy to stop gender discrimination.
Work as a Bengali translator for immigrant parents.
Hold community meetings with school officials, parents, and students
Help set up school events for admissions and PTC
GLOBAL GLIMPSE, CONSTANZA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Traveled to the Dominican Republic to learn through foreign travel and home-stays
Community action projects: Building and helping fund a playground for underfunded community
Assisted disabled family build a dam near their home to avoid flooding
Cleaned up trash around public school
Taught middle schooler students English
Helped disable farmers with their daily chores
Year-long follow-on program that’s targeted to individualized project to improve community.
OTHER COMMUNITY WORK/EXPERIENCES
National Honors Society
Peer tutoring Central Park East High School
Teaching Assistant for Girls Who Code
Volunteering for Soup Kitchens
Helping Bronx, NY community members look for missing persons
Green club In Central Park East High school - taking care of school garden/plants, and initiating recycling program for the school.
Working at Middlebury Children center
member of WOC and Women in Computer Science++
Connecting with students by working as a photographer for school events
Worked at Mamun's Tutorial, Bronx NY to teach first generation immigrants English and help with coursework and exams
Changes I want to work on
More Mental Health resources: less course warnings, more destressor events, destress stations across campus, more breaks during the semester. Work with the disability center to discuss further improvements. “ We cannot let what happened to Yan Zhou happen again”
Implementing stricter and more frequent green dot training, positive sexual relationship information sessions, and consent learning every semester. Stronger focus on social houses and athletic teams. “ We deserve to be safe especially while dealing with the stress of college, work, mental health, and physical wellness”
Creating mandatory racism training every semester
Compensating student org leaders through stipends or credit at the grille and middxpress. “We are taking an extra class at this point and the importance of our work is just as salient as official administration”
Supporting low income students financially: Increasing work study wage, discounts for midd xpress and grille, discounts for groceries for off meal plan students, and stipends provided for low income students struggling with mental health. “ We have enough problems and even more financial resources so lets make those two work together”
creating an ambassador board member position for student organizations to facilitate all communications between orgs. “ We need to unify our passion for improving our community”
Place a camera on the entrance of the prayer space for Muslim students to prevent further hate crimes. “We can’t always change people’s hate but we can make them afraid to show it”
More cameras at the student center to prevent more hateful incidents: white supremacy stickers, destruction of SJP posters etc.
Creating a go link that reports destruction of school property and unnecessary cruel work created for faculty. Ex: leaving feces in the shower.“ The kinder we are to the people that keep our community functioning, the happier our lives will become”
Creating a mandatory training that informs students about the work dining faculty or cleaning crew goes through to foster a more positive relationship that encourages kindness and understanding.
Put more pressure on the campus bias team to investigate all reported incidents
Work with MIIS to improve international students’ lives
Create an official annual cultural event that celebrates all the different personalities on campus. “ Let’s tackle all the passion of cultural appropriation and mold it to cultural appreciation”
“ The more we improve our community, the more people we will inspire to join our cause”
“Dear All,
It is with immense honor that I recommend Mubasshira Ahmed for Co-Chair of Community Council.
I’ve known Muba before she came to Middlebury. Since I’ve known her, Muba has been a warm and caring friend who has always looked out for everyone around her. She’s a great communicator and is able to connect with people of all ages and backgrounds. She has an incredible ability to truly listen to what others are saying. Listening to the stories of different students speaking about their unfortunate experiences feeling unsafe at campus events, she has worked to implement mandatory Green Dot training. The mandatory training is one example of how Muba has emphasized the importance of accountability and a safe environment to all are crucial to the success of our Middlebury community.
Additionally, Muba is extremely tenacious. Refusing to settle for anything less than amazing and expecting nothing but the best for herself and others, Muba is always going above and beyond to make sure that she achieves all her goals. Living with Muba and watching her plan for school events, I have witnessed how she will go the extra mile to make sure everything is as fun and worthwhile.
When Muba puts her mind to something it is because she truly cares and knows she can make a difference. I am beyond grateful to have her in my life and get to endorse her for Co-Chair of Community Council.
Kind Regards
Elizabeth Reyes’22
Project Assistant, Community Connected Learning
Archive Fellow, Twilight Project”
"If you’ve ever been around Muba, you know she don’t play. If she wants something, she works for it, but most importantly if she cares, she cares wholeheartedly!
Darleny Mendoza'22
Founder of PALANA
Former Board Member Juntos, Alianza, and PALANA"
Other Endorsements: Sydney Smith'24, Bailey Sneed'23, Isaias Roy'23, Griffin Clinton'24, Sarah Kimmell, Sofia West'23.5, Lili Scheeler, Akhbarali Aziz, Angelina Gomes, Noah Glassman, Julian Gonzalez, Reuben Slade'23.5, Sam Lipin'23.5, Leslie Ramirez, Paradise Phoenix, Joseph Duran'23, Sherley Lopez, Founders of PALANA, Juntos Board member, SGA RSR Committee
MY RELEVANT SKILLSET
Qualities I value about myself: being understanding, patient, kind, honest, good listener, compromising, empathetic, self aware, observant, caring, giving, and most importantly keeping it real