Moment 1: Intercultural Adoption
As a Palestinian who was adopted into a white family as a toddler, I was not encouraged, or even allowed, to engage with Palestinian culture. Throughout my childhood, I never felt as though I belonged within my family or their surrounding community, especially when I experienced racism and xenophobia from community members. These experiences left me feeling disconnected from my culture and generally alone in the world, leading to lasting mental health problems as I grew older. Now, as a leader, these experiences taught me the importance and value of diversity. Cultural connection is not only vital to one's lived experience, providing them with a fuller and more connected life, but it is also critical to inclusive leadership. Bringing people of different cultures together during leadership efforts encourages innovative ideas, and the sharing of previously unconsidered perspectives, and leads to sustainable and lasting change.
Moment 2:Â Growing Up Impoverished
Growing up with divorced parents in different tax brackets meant the majority of the time, I lived in extreme poverty with my mother and occasionally entered a world free of financial stress with my father. Seeing the differences between these two realities was jarring and incredibly confusing. As a young child, I could not fathom why someone with abundant privileges and luxuries, like my father, would refuse to donate to people without food, housing, or basic resources, like my mother and I. Growing up within this dichotomy demonstrated to me the importance of generosity and equitable distribution of resources. Today, this translates into socialist leadership ideals, like a passion for supporting low-income communities and advocating for accessible social resources.
Moment 3: Experiencing Medical Discrimination through Ableism, Sexism, and Classism
Due to a genetic disorder and an accident I was involved in during my youth, I began to experience extreme nerve pain in elementary and middle school. Eventually, this culminated in my use of a wheelchair, hearing loss, and vision loss. Before I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, I went from doctor to doctor in an effort to find an answer to my chronic illness. Every doctor I visited, who were primarily white men, dismissed my pain as hypochondria, menstruation pains, or due to being slightly overweight. This medical neglect was extremely taxing on my mental health, leading to a severe eating disorder and worsening anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, this experience is overwhelmingly common for femme-presenting and low-income people experiencing chronic pain. The discrimination I faced from medical practitioners caused lasting physical damage, as my prolonged suffering from lack of treatment has led to permanent bone and muscle dystrophy and weakness. Moreover, this discrimination introduced me to the inequities of healthcare provided to marginalized communities, engraining me with a passion for health equity. As a leader, this experience taught me the importance of developing empathy through storytelling. The only time I was taken seriously by physicians was when I shared my story of constant dismissal and pain. It wasn't until I advocated for myself and created a connection with my healthcare team that I was able to receive treatment. Now, I hope to influence public health systems to ensure that marginalized individuals can receive the care they require.
Moment 4: Advocating for Palestinian Resistance and Freedom
After October 7th, 2023, I witnessed firsthand the xenophobia, Islamaphobia, and racism that plagues our country, and the world. Since last October, many Muslims and Arabs on the CU campus have experienced near-daily macro and micro-aggressions from the abundance of zionists at our school. For me, this manifested in verbal harassment when traversing campus, being added to what was essentially a Palestinian hitlist, and watching one of my friends on this list get shot. Throughout the genocide in Gaza, I have watched as misinformation infected a campus of well-educated students and professors. Seeing the damage that these lies spread by our media for the purpose of financial gain have had on my country and community has taught me the importance of honest communication, especially through dialogues with people with who you have opposing political beliefs. Additionally, my involvement in political advocacy via protesting, spreading awareness of this genocide, and raising funds for families in Gaza has taught me about the power that comes from community organizing and that we as individuals have to change the world.
Moment 5: Discovering My Passion for Public Health
Before becoming a student in Public Health, I believed my purpose on earth was to work as an Infectious Disease Specialist. While I am still interested in providing health care and learning about communicable diseases, I have developed a greater passion for health equity through my public health coursework. Learning about the inequalities in health that burden marginalized communities worldwide was incredibly frustrating and enraging, especially as someone who has experienced many of these injustices. However, these learning experiences also fueled me with the knowledge and passion needed to make a change in the US healthcare systems and beyond. Now, I know I want to work as a Public Health Nurse Practitioner to support and uplift vulnerable communities by providing patient care, studying health trends, and influencing equitable public health policy. My lived and learned experiences as a minority individual have taught me that involving marginalized individuals in efforts that influence their community is the best way to make sustainable changes to the systems oppressing us all. Thus, I am most interested in working with international communities to make public health more equitable across the globe.