Placement: San Francisco Arts Commission Administration – Policy and Evaluation

My Hometown: Toronto, Canada

My Education: University of California, Berkeley; Bachelors of Arts in Political Science; San Joaquin Delta Community College

Selected Honors:

–       UC Berkeley Alumni Association Leadership Award

–       Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow

–       Lathrop Chamber of Commerce Organization of the Year: Boys and Girls Club of Manteca & Lathrop

Selected Activities and Community Involvement:

–       Research Assistant; Goldman School of Public Policy

–       Research and Mobilization Undergraduate Coordinator; Centers for Education Equity and Excellence at UC Berkeley (CE3)

–       Site Director; Boys and Girls Club of Manteca & Lathrop

–       Vice President; UC Berkeley Muslim Student Association

–       Youth Coordinator, Conference Planner, and Refugee Relief Aide; Eritrean Muslim Council (National and Northern California Chapters)

–       Active Poet and Youth Workshop Leader

Why San Francisco is important to me: Growing up and moving between many urban and rural cities, the government was perceived as a distant, ineffective, and negative institution in many spaces I occupied. Outside of the instances where corruption and poor governance were very real, I identified early on that the primary problem in most of the community spaces that surrounded me was the imposed or perceived lack of access to governmental institutions. After reading about the impact of urban politics in my undergrad education, it became clear that local governance is the easiest way to directly change your daily reality! Now, in the multifaceted metropolitan that is San Francisco, I am eager to learn about the institutional capacity of local governance to serve, communicate, and be accessible to diverse needs.

Something unique about me: I wake up every morning eating a bowl full of sunshine, snack on Alhamdulillah throughout the afternoon, and sip on a cup of Hakuna Matata before I go to bed. This daily diet of supplements gives me the power to succeed in the face of adversity and easily do the splits with minimal stretching.