When I embarked upon the journey of learning professionalism at Amal Academy, I was expecting a high quality of content that will be taught to us in a 3-month fellowship. Thus I was really excited and partly anxious when starting this program. And it felt very fulfilling when those expectations were met. However, this wasn’t the end of it, it was merely the beginning.
What followed was extremely fun and interactive sessions, active participation of fellows, encouraging and supportive program facilitators, engaging group activities, informative video clips, discussions that changed perspectives, self-reflection opportunities, tips from the crème de la crème of professionalism, and much more that helped me incomprehensibly.
I love observing things. So out of habit and curiosity, I observed our weekly sessions at Amal too. Just the way we were taught to find out QBQ’s (question behind questions) in interviews, I tried to find the reason behind so many fun and informative activities. It wasn’t difficult to see. If you viewed it from that perspective, it was conspicuous throughout the sessions. And that reason was the “dedication of the Program Facilitators.”
The dedication of Sir Noor and Ma’am Arfa has been evident throughout the 3-months fellowship. Be it Sir Noor taking out time to answer all of our queries even after the session has ended, or sending me a list of all the possible places I could apply for internships, or 1–1 sessions, or Ma’am Arfa emailing and messaging us every single detail, or announcing so many rules in the session, there was one thing evident throughout it. It was dedication and honesty to the job.
I still remember when I was applying to a technical fellowship program a month ago and the deadline was impending. I decided to seek help from Sir Noor Alam regarding my ‘personal statement’ and ‘video introduction’. Despite having an extremely busy schedule, and it being a time out of job hours, Sir spent hours with me. He called me while being busy in other engagements and managed to guide me in depth. I had to send my ‘personal statement’ along with the ‘video introduction’ to sir so many times and still, he corrected me humbly each time until it was perfect. I was absolutely exhausted after it all. I can’t imagine how tired my program manager must be, but he never let it show and was completely supportive throughout the process. Needless to say, I nailed the application process and was among the 50 people selected out of over 2000 applications.
It is 4:30 am as I am typing this blog. I am wondering why am I exactly doing what I am doing right now(another principle Amal Academy taught me i.e. “Kyu Kyu Kyu”). Firstly, it is almost the end of the fellowship, and it feels melancholic to think that we’ll part away just when we had started to get to know each other. So I wanted to pour my heart out. Secondly, it was an act of kindness that struck the chords of my heart. Therefore, it was worth mentioning and worth sacrificing my sleep over for. The extra dedication and kindness I received from my program manager at Amal academy is something I’ll remember, it is one of my lollipop moments, and I will keep trying to spread the same type of kindnesses in the universe.
I can write a lot more on the positive moments in this fellowship and I would love to write more but I am afraid I’ll have to stop here. I’ll eventually have to stop somewhere. This is as perfect an ending to the fellowship as it could ever have been for me.
