My First Two Weeks in Amal
Reflecting back on my first two weeks in fellowship reminds me of my hard routine. During the very first weekend session of my fellowship, I was busy with the final exams of the 5th semester in university. I wasn’t able to attend the first two sessions and neither did I submit project work 1 on time, which I regret till now 😓. I informed my Program Manager and Program Associate about my exams and they co-operated with me.
I remember I was in learning group 6 with Erum Munir as our leader. We had to do perform a learning group task, all of my group members were having virtual meetings on Zoom but I was unable to attend those. I informed Erum about that and she managed the situation very well. I still remember, all of the members of the fellowship were having introductions and other talks in the WhatsApp group but I was silent ☹ .
After getting free from all of my exams, I checked all of the unread emails on my amal email id. I felt really disappointed to see that I had missed my first PW 😞. I contacted Erum and learned that how to complete online courses and my PW-2. She guided me very well and then I headed towards my second project work and what a beautiful experience it was for me.
The first online course which I watched was about leadership without authority and it was entirely a new perspective of leadership for me. I enjoyed that course a lot because I got to know that a person can lead even if he is not in power or he is not in any authoritative position. This idea was entirely new for me as I explored the ways of leading a group even if I were not the leader! This was the thing that led me towards a growth mindset while finding opportunities and helping others even in adverse circumstances. The idea of lollipop moments and identifying the lollipop moments amazed me. I also learned about conflicts while working in groups and ways to solve those conflicts. In that course, I went through a case study of LUMS, and in the next online session, which was my first session with amal fellows, we were given an activity to play a role of any character from that case study and I volunteered to play the role of Khawar in a situation given by our respected ma’am🤩. During my one on one session with ma’am Rabia, our project manager, I was given very positive feedback for my volunteering effort and my effort was appreciated🥰. At the end of the day, I was able to develop a strong understanding between authority and responsibility.
The second online course was about career planning and it was as amazing as the first online course. In that course, I came to know about the pros and cons of doing an internship before a job after graduation. I really loved the way in which career, vocation, and job were differentiated and explained. The thing which I loved the most was converting my plans to goals and goals to smart goals.
After turning my project work in and publishing a blog on medium, I was really excited to attend my first online session of the Amal career-prep fellowship. It was really a great experience for me to meet many unknown fellows who were going to be my pals! At the start of the session, I was a bit nervous because I had missed my first two sessions but both ma’am engaged me in the activities and I started feeling at home.
I got really positive and motivating feedback from Ma’am Hajira which motivated me to work even harder while doing PWs next time☺.
Keeping it short and coming towards the end, I would like to say that in that week, I did not know that I would develop such a strong bonding with those people. I have made many new friends who are having a strong mutual bond with me. As far as my learnings are concerned, I have developed myself professionally to a great deal. I have learned the things which will help a lot in my professional career and help me in acing through my life after graduation, In Sha Allah 😊.
