Featured Woman in STEM: Sana Basheer

Biography:

Sana Basheer is a fourth-year Biochemistry Co-Terminal student. She is a Camras Scholar, a 2017 National Merit Finalist, a 2017 Junior Achievement Scholar, a 2017 Elk’s Lodge Scholar, and a 2017 Burger King Scholar.

She is the Founder and Chief Editor of the Undergraduate Research Journal of Illinois Tech, where she works to encourage undergraduate students to get involved in research while highlighting and promoting the incredible research that is currently being done, both through interactive initiatives and the annual journal. As the Head of Education at UNICEF, she organized campaigns to highlight important issues affecting children globally, held monthly presentations to raise awareness on important and time-sensitive issues affecting children around the globe and how UNICEF could help, and organized volunteering events to help children in the local community.

She is also the Co-Director for the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium, one of the largest undergraduate research symposiums in the nation, where she worked with students and faculty from six core universities to organize the annual conference. She also spearheaded efforts to convert the canceled 2020 symposium into a multidisciplinary undergraduate research journal that highlighted and shared the impactful work done by undergraduate students. She further worked with sponsors to manage a budget of almost $40,000.

She continued her passion for research as a Student Liaison for Illinois Tech Undergraduate Research Council where she worked closely with representatives from the various colleges to plan a college-wide undergraduate research poster day to encourage the professional presentation of research. This would help expose students to the varying research interests across campus and increased cross-collaboration across disciplines. She further initiated the social media campaign to advertise the Council’s initiatives, highlighted student research from across campus, and encouraged open communication between students and the Council members.

She served many academic positions as a supplemental instructor for Organic Chemistry I and II, a teacher’s assistant for microbiology, a peer scholar that covered a multitude of topics in her major, and a research volunteer at the Comprehensive Care Program.

An Analysis of Sana's Time at Illinois Tech, by Barien Gad:

Sana Basheer believes in the importance of being passionate about everything you do.

She is a well qualified student who is looking to make a positive impact on the Illinois Tech community.

She wasn't expecting to find a mentor here. But unexpectedly, Illinois Tech gave Sana the most essential resource to her success, a current Illinois Tech faculty member- Dr. Xiang. Dr. Xiang is the Interim-Dean of the Biology Department, and according to Sana, "she treated me like a competent adult.” When I asked Sana to elaborate, she explained how Dr. Xiang recognized that each student's journey is unique and provided Sana with the tools to explore her passions and interests. “In a way, Dr. Xiang reminded me that ultimately, I have to have agency over my own actions and it is my responsibility to work tirelessly towards the goals I set myself.” Valuable life lessons about responsibility are essential in joining the real world, and Sana had a reliable adult teaching her these lessons.

Sana’s humble personality was very clear the entire time I spoke to her, she constantly credited her mentor, Dr. Xiang, for everything she has today. She passionately speaks of her mentor claiming that Dr. Xiang “genuinely cares about students and their well-being beyond just the lab and the classroom”, unconsciously pointing out prominent issues in Illinois Tech’s care for student health among faculty.

In fact, there are countless occasions of students reporting that they felt their professors were unaccommodating of their concerns and experiences. Yet, professors will introduce themselves as kind, accommodating individuals. While there are numerous ways to help fix this, we can begin to address this issue by instituting mandatory training for professors at the beginning of the year. Additionally, Illinois Tech could implement initiatives that increase accountability for the actions of advisors, so students have access to an outlet to safely voice concerns that will be taken seriously by upper administration without the fear of drawback.

Talking to her, I was reminded of what Mr. Miyagi tells Daniel in the Karate Kid franchise, that there is “no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher.” Sana's mentor was instrumental in supporting her towards her goals. In fact, when I first met Sana, I naturally gravitated towards the welcoming reassuring persona, something I now realize she has learned to accomplish from her mentor.

However, in realizing this, a grave feeling nestled itself in the bottom of my heart. What happens to students who have the wrong kind of a mentor? A mentor who is ruthless, uncaring, and belittling?

Seeing the influence Sana’s mentor had on her life was extremely exciting and refreshing, but at the same time reminded me of how fortunate Sana truly is. Not all the faculty at the university are as welcoming. We are assigned advisors at the beginning of our time at Illinois Tech. Some students are in good communication with their advisors, others have never spoken to or met their advisors, and some are scared of their advisors.

The question becomes: Is it a student’s responsibility to find a mentor outside of their advisor, or should the university be providing that as well?

For those who argue towards providing a mentor, I present a hired mentor who is a disingenuous individual and who cares little about the student and is doing the bare minimum to fulfill their job requirements. Will the harms outweigh the benefits?

For those who argue against providing a mentor, I present to you the difficulties of connecting to a mentor with limited resources due to social and socio-economic limitations. Are we ignoring the challenges of disadvantaged groups? Are we addressing the lack of diversity among mentors serving a diverse student population? Doesn't every student deserve access to a mentor who shares similar experiences and understands how their respective field treats people of their race, religions, SES, gender orientation, and so much more?

My personal experience with Dr. Xiang has been nothing but positive. I met her when she held a meeting for the entire student biology department and asked what we wanted. She as well asked what she could do to help us achieve our goals. Since that meeting, she has made endless efforts to support biology undergraduates and I am extremely grateful.

In fact, she offered a solution to the dilemma presented above. She asked faculty to volunteer as mentors and then asked students interested in a mentor to let her know. She then paired students in the UG department.

I cannot speak to the success of the entire program, but I can speak to my personal experiences: when I needed to talk to my mentor I contacted them.

I then asked Sana to speak about defining experiences in her time at Illinois Tech . She chose to tell me about three classes that she felt contributed to her passion for science. She credits Dr. Menhart’s Biochemistry class for simplifying complicated biochemical processes into their most basic forms, so they become intuitive and easy to understand. She credits her passion for medicine to Dr. Xiang’s Molecular Cellular Biology. She finally discussed a social science class with Dr. Deis who took students into a deep dive about modern manifestations of social inequality, including gun control, mental health, housing, discrimination, and so much more, before opening a discussion to allow students with diverse lived experiences to explain their thoughts and perspectives.

As mentioned earlier, Sana is a co-terminal student, but she says her entire time at Illinois Tech she felt like an undergraduate. In fact, the main reason she decided to pursue a master’s was so she could continue her research in Dr. Xiang’s lab. Again, this reiterated Sana’s positive experience with her mentor.

I decided to challenge Sana and ask her how the Illinois Tech community had shaped her moral compass. She chose to discuss how certain organizations on campus such as the American Medical Student Association challenged preconceived notions about the toxic competitiveness of premedical students. She pointed to their President Rachel George and her efforts to make AMSA more than an organization about becoming a good medical school candidate in the admissions process and instead focus on developing the knowledge and skill set to become a good physician.

Sana opened a great discussion about other organizations on campus. There are many, and a lot of them are important but some of them are not. In fact, some of them are very shallow and carry a shallow mission, and have disingenuous events. It feels that many leadership roles in organizations exist for the sole purpose of creating a bullet point on a resume.

I will not lie, it is very tempting. But how do we hold these “leaders” accountable for not using their resources and position of power to better the campus?

Why is it so easy to approve so many futile organizations on campus that will inevitably fail?

Why was it so hard to pass Women and Gender Minorities in STEM at Illinois Tech and why did the Student Government Association vote seven to six?

Maybe the problem is that the people in power are struggling to hold those around them accountable for their responsibilities because there is no passion for the organization.

As the president of Women and Gender Minorities in STEM, I can tell you from experience that when the right people are working on a project that they collectively care for, it is not difficult.

A huge part of Sana’s identity is her religion. She is a Muslim woman who wears the hijab and faces the consequences of arrogant students, professors, and professionals. I was very interested to hear about her experiences on campus as a Muslim woman myself. From what I discussed with her, she overall felt safe on campus. It makes sense, Illinois Tech has a huge Muslim community with a fairly active Muslim Student's Association, because they all share a passion for the community the organization brings. She told me about how other girls in the Muslim Student's Association served as great resources in her time by helping her arrange opportunities.

It was comforting to be reminded that the Muslim women of Illinois Tech were there for each other, especially in the height of Trump’s Islamophobic presidency. In fact, part of the initiative for this organization was to extend this support for women and gender minorities of all intersectionalities in STEM on campus.

Looking at Sana’s accomplishments over the past four years, they carried a theme of education; whether she provided educational opportunities or took part in learning through research. When I asked why she decided to follow this path, she responded by saying “I did not pick it, it kind of just came about.” I was very interested in how you get such a specific concise theme in your activities, and she referred to her mentor, Dr. Xiang, once again. She spoke of how working in Dr. Xiang’s lab provided her with endless applicational learning opportunities for her studies, and how she was excited to share it with other students.

I ended the discussion with Sana by asking her what advice she would give to her younger siblings, she said: “do what you love, and do not follow others instead make your own path.”

The best news to come off this is the long-term effects Dr. Xiang had on Sana’s life. Sana carries on the teachings of Dr. Xiang in the way she carries and presents herself, and as someone who personally knows Sana, I can say confidently that she has benefited the community.

Sana’s excitement and passion are undeniably contagious. She has an encouraging attitude and is an individual that serves to uplift others. Illinois Tech is truly lucky to have her.

Sana, on behalf of Women and Gender Minorities in STEM, we wish you the best of luck in medical school and cannot wait to see your future endeavors.