Women’s History Month: Women that changed my life
Women’s History Month, celebrated in March, is the month when we take the time to look back and honor the many achievements of women through history and the vast strides made by women today. (Google)
In celebration of Women’s History month, I wanted to take a moment to show my appreciation to all the women around the world, but specifically to the brave, strong ones that have impacted my life. Without them, I wouldn’t be the man I am today.
I’m highlighting short stories about these women in my life, some that are family, and others that are mentors or role models. They’ve led and paved the way for me, along with so many others. They are empathetic, compassionate, powerful, and authentic leaders. ❤️
Nonya El-Bayoumi (mama), Visionary, Mother
My dear mother, who is without a doubt the most important figure in my life. My mother was born in Egypt and studied english and translation in university. She started her career as a translator and english educator. However, after having her third child (my sister), she had to sacrifice her career to make sure we grew up nurtured and cared for. Today, more than 20 years later, there are 9 of us (and without saying) — she is the #1 superhero you can ever ask for. She’s taught me so much, too much to list, but to mention a few: to love myself, to appreciate who I am, to never give up-ever.
An honorable mention to my 3 beautiful younger sisters, each of whom has supported, inspired, and kept me going in their own ways: Shahenda, Nonya and Joanna Khedr. The whole family is depending on y’all. :)
Iris Blanc, Executive Director & Founder, @Virtual Enterprises International
When I was in high school, I completed a program called Virtual Enterprise International, which essentially allowed students to run a business as a simulation. I always tell Iris that the program she built literally saved my life. I was surrounding myself with the wrong groups of people and almost lost my life in the streets of NYC; but VEI gave me an opportunity to explore my passion and translate my energy into something useful. Today, VEI has served more than 100,000 students across the country and continues to impact over 13,000 yearly. Beyond this, Iris has mentored and supported me many times throughout the last 6 years. She believed in me. When I was forced to drop out of college for a year after high school, she gave me a job and supported me. That was a huge milestone for me. She showed me how to believe in someone’s ability, before they even believe themselves.
Lindsay Siegel, former Executive Director @Zahn Innovation Center — CCNY
Lindsay is a passionate, people-first, deeply caring leader who has impacted my life and so many others’ throughout her tenure at CCNY as the Executive Director of the Zahn Innovation Center. She helped me lay the foundation for many of the internships I went on to secure at Echoing Green, the Mayor’s Office, Facebook and Google. She also helped me launch multiple startups, including the one I’m working on now, FloraMind. She showed me how to be a caring, charismatic and effective leader.
Grayson Miles, Team Lead for Consumer Packaged Goods @Facebook
Grayson was my manager when I did my first internship at a tech company, and my biggest “break” in to the tech world. She taught me how to navigate a large company like Facebook, and gave me some of the best advice that helped me thrive during my time there. She showed me the importance of the “gift” of feedback, and how it can be used to motivate and inspire others. She also showed the qualities that make a supportive, caring, and empathetic manager — I strive to be like her as I’m growing my company.
Kate Hayes, Director @Echoing Green
My first internship after I started college was at Echoing Green, where Kate hired me to support the new Direct Impact initiative. She showed me that it’s possible to do well in your career, and do good at the same time. Doing well by doing good. Which essentially means that you can get a job at any company — investment banking, consulting, technology — and still find ways to do good in the world (like supporting organizations that combat sexual harassment or finding cures for illnesses). I also learned about how to build a nonprofit board, and what makes members great or not.
Adrienne Schmoeker, Deputy Chief Analytics Officer @ City of New York
Adrienne taught me how to think about problems from a systems perspective. She was my manager at my internship at the Mayor’s Office of Tech & Innovation (now CTO’s Office). The funny thing is, I didn’t realize this till a few years later. In my time there, she walked me through how mapping out an entire system (I worked on STEM initiatives across NYC) is crucial to understanding the problems and gaps that need to be filled. She also showed me how far good listening can take you.
Humera: Leticia: Laurie, The Fam at @University Innovation Fellows Program at Stanford
Humera, Leticia, and Laurie lead the University Innovation Fellows program; a program designed to empower students to change higher education. Since I began my involvement in the program almost three years ago, my entire life has changed. While the curriculum, lessons, videos, resources, and activities are great; the secret sauce of UIF is the humanistic, empathetic approach — filled with love and kindness — that all three of them embody and infuse into every aspect of the work they do. I can go on and write an entire essay about each one. But, to be more specific, I want to do a key takeaway from each one:
Humera: Showed me how to be more persistent, understanding and to see the better light in any situation.
Leticia: Showed me how to be more articulate and to lead by example instead of simple belief.
Laurie: Showed me how compassion can be used to bring people closer together and the importance of building safe spaces where we go.
I learned how to build movements, teams, and deeply care about others. One of my favorite moments is when the entire UIF team surprised me and my team for our first ever workshop at City College. It brought me to tears. :)
Collectively, showed me why it’s important to start with love. Always and forever.
Dee Dee Mozeleski, Executive Director @21st Century Foundation @ CCNY
Dee Dee believed in my potential very early on. When I came to her asking for funding to go to conferences that I was excited about, she supported me. When I was asking for advice for my career and life, she supported me. Throughout all the different clubs, initiatives, internships, and now companies I’ve worked at or started, she’s always supported. She showed me what it means to believe in people’s potential and invest, nurture, and help them grow.
And while the ROI on investing in people’s potential is not very clear, it can pay off in multiples down the line.
Dee Dee also taught me that you have to showcase the work you’re doing, or no one will ever notice. Show up and show out.
Rana Abdelhamid, Founder & CEO @Malikah
I met Rana a few years ago at Harvard’s Arab Weekend. I saw her give an empowering talk about how women can practice self-defense. I was amazed by all the fantastic work she was doing with her organization, and when I learned she was Egyptian, my excitement shot through the roof. People like Rana and I are a very small minority in the U.S. — and seeing someone lead the way and break through ceilings inspired me so much. Rana has supported me since. In our last conversation, as I complained and shared my worries about the slow growth of my organization, she reminded me the importance of patience, persistence, slowing down, and believing.
Mirian Itani, Senior Industry Analyst @Google
This past summer, I was extremely fortunate to land an internship at Google’s Dubai office, working under Mirian. It was one of the most challenging yet rewarding experience of my life. Initially, I faced issues with travel to Dubai, but Mirian showed me how leaders accommodate others. She challenged me to think deeper, analyze better, and work harder. She pushed me to realize my potential and go beyond that. She taught me how to be more strategic and analytical when looking at different problems. That skill has been one of the most important as an entrepreneur. I’m forever grateful.
Nashid Chowdhury, CCNY student & Designer
My good friend Nashid. Someone I have lots of love and respect for. I’ve worked with Nashid on so many different occasions; we worked together at a startup, then we co-founded one together. We went through mini successes and big failures. Nashid showed me how to be more critical of work that I produced myself, along with what others did. She’s a compassionate, caring leader that I’ve been fortunate to learn from. She doesn’t stay quiet to injustice or inequality. And that I respect. Nashid was also one of my main inspirations for starting FloraMind. We had so many conversations about the importance of mental health and that something had to be done to tackle the problems we face as individuals and as a society.
Nathaly Ardiles, CCNY student & CEO at Invention Corps
Nathaly Ardiles! One of the most relentless, hard working women I know. I worked with Nathaly on a few different initiatives across our campus to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. And I always admired how open she always is. She is serious about getting work done, but always inclusive, loving and caring to others’ opinions and perspectives. She showed how to do it better in teams and why it’s important to work with people you actually like. And if you don’t like those people, always put in the effort to try to understand them better. Nat also emphasized the importance of understanding what I’m good at, and not feeling bad for what I’m not. That helped me get reduce of a lot of negative self-talk and feelings towards my strengths and weaknesses.
Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO @Girls Who Code
Reshma is someone I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet. But she is a great role model of mine. She embodies many qualities of the greatest leaders ever, but has her own twist to it. Her journey from law school to running for office, to building one of the largest non-profit STEM initiatives leaves me in awe. One of my favorite things that Reshma does, as I follow her on Instagram, is #failurefridays. Every Friday, she posts about a failure in her life that she experienced, or a failure in the system, in order to encourage young girls and people in general to fail forward, embrace it, and learn from it. She also just published a book she wrote called Brave Not Perfect.
Dr. Terri Watson, Professor of Human Development & Leadership @ CCNY
Dr. Terri Watson is the most recent person that I have met. I am currently a student in her Urban Schools In A Diverse American Society class. Dr. Watson has taught me things about the education system that have left me appalled. Further, she’s introduced my to some concepts and ideas that have transformed the way I think about the world. First, she encouraged and pushed me to think more critically. She challenged me to challenge everything that’s been taught to me. Second, she embodied and showed how leaders should operate; with love, care, and empathy. However, you can still be professional and serious at the same time. Lastly, Dr. Watson once told me,
“Everyone has their own truths. Truth with a lower case t. Because we all have our different perspectives in the world.” — Dr. Watson
This built on critically looking at the way the world is and the information that is dumped on us everyday.
Some of my close friends have shared graphics and conversations with me about Women’s International day. Some expressed anger that while it’s cool to have a day for women, they would much rather prefer things actually changing. The following illustration is a pretty good example that I think we should all think about:
To close this piece, I will leave one, final quote from Maya Angelou:
And while I love this quote, I’d like to add that men also must play a role in standing up for women in spaces where they need us to. In hostile, toxic environments where they might be attacked (verbally or in any other form) — we have an obligation to support them. And when we do so, we stand up for all women.
Thank you for taking the time to read! Please feel free to show love to any of those incredible leaders by sharing this article, supporting their work and organizations, or reaching out to them.
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Follow me on Medium Mahmoud Khedr
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