Saeed Al Jaberi

UT PROSIM

            “That I may serve” is the English translation for the Latin phrase that defines the spirit and mission of Virginia Tech: Ut Prosim. As a former Hokie, I take great pride in Virginia Tech’s legacy of service. Often service is thought of as giving to others, but I have greatly benefited from my service experiences. Service is not only a way to gain new experiences, but also a process by which I have learned about myself, my community, and my world. Service is an invaluable part of the college experience and I plan to continue my former schools' legacy of service long after I graduate.

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My year (2017-2018) was full of opportunities that I took with pride to provide service to the community that I live in including:

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City Harvest in NYC with LAM (Lazard Asset Management) (July 2018 – 10 hours): I traveled to NYC to participate in a food gathering event with the LAM interns class. This was a great opportunity for me to connect with the other interns from the NYC office as I am the only inter in the Boston office. The event started at the NYC office where I got to introduce myself to everyone, and then we made our way to the venue where the food exhibition was taking place. The exhibition was for high-end food vendors from all around the world who have come to showcase their foods. Our main objective was to collect unsold food and shelving it in the appropriate crates. See picture below of the group.

Sloan Senate  - Philanthropy committee (Academic year 2017 – 2018 ~ 30+ hours): This was a great learning experience for me as I got to practice my leadership skills. As for all senators, I had to apply to 3 choices of committees and my top choice was the philanthropy committee and luckily, I was given my top choice. My duties ranged from attending the weekly meetings discussing old and new proposals for projects serving the community in Boston and Cambridge (which included Amazon gifts drives, donation bins, partnering up with local non-profits to help elderly, and organizing various volunteering opportunities to Sloan students) to sending out emails to the whole MFin class about the overall image of the program.

Zayed Kidney Marathon (Summer 2018 – 3 hours): I had the great honor to run in Zayed’s annual 10K for kidney health in New York city. The last time I participated in this event was to volunteer as an organizer, but since then, I have embraced running longer distances when I ran the Boston half-marathon. It was great seeing people from all around the world coming together to run in the early cold morning of New York city. After the run, I had the chance to talk to many foreigners who were genuinely interested in knowing more about Zayed and the UAE.

Emirati students annual conference (Thanksgiving 2017 – 5 hours): Every year, the UAE embassy in DC organizes a conference to gather all Emirati students in the US while inviting Emirati companies in the goal of setting up a career fair while also adding a cultural component to it. This year’s conference was by the far the most productive for me out of all conferences I attended in the past as I was more focused on meeting people to set a calculated plan for my recruiting season. This year I helped with making the Coffee and representing ADIA at the career booth.

 

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Past Years:

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Habitat for Humanity - Summer 2017 (20 Hrs): We worked on houses that were being built for the needy. This year's Habitat for humanity project involved a lot of labor as we were asked to transport a huge amount of gravel. We split into two groups: one would transport the gravel from the storage point to the house base where it was being sorted out, and the other team would equally spread it over the house base. On the next day. we worded on making wall panels, which involved a decent amount of cutting wooden pieces to size and nailing them down to each other. Even though I had to leave early for summer classes, I loved this year's project as it was very intense and I am definitely looking forward to next year's project.  

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Special Needs Soccer (SNR) at Umich - 2017 (8 Hrs):  I joined this club when I first got to Umich, but never had a chance to be an active member in it until my second year on campus. Club members would get together and travel to a local school where we would meet with kids from the local community dealing with special needs. We would teach them how to play different sports, however, I was only able to take a lead when we would teach these kids how to play soccer. It was a lot of fun playing soccer with these kids as some of them were very funny. I was also reminded that I should not take my health for granted and to look at other kids who might not be enjoying the same health conditions.

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Ramadan Iftar (Breakfast) committee - Summer 2017 (10 Hrs): Before the holy month of Ramadan, we had an MSA (Muslim Students Association) meeting where we discussed the need to start a committee that plans and prepares for Ramadan. So, we made a schedule for Iftar for the month of Ramadan and then started contacting restaurants that were willing to cater for us. During Ramadan, we prepared the iftar for Umich students who stayed on campus for Ramadan which was the best part of the whole experience. It was very powerful whenever I saw the looks of appreciation on my friends' faces.

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English Tutoring for Syrian Refugee Program 2016 (Just started): I am starting a program where we connect Syrian refugees with international Arabic-speaking students as tutors to help ease their transition into the U.S. as they come from Syria or different parts of the world. I will be starting tutoring in July 2016 myself to an older Syrian man who arrive in Michigan 2 months ago. 

           

The Big Event is a very huge event that is annually organized by Virginia Tech in order to provide the students chances to serve the community of Blacksburg, Salem, and Roanoke. Last year, I participated with the MSA (Muslim Students Association) group, and we were assigned to do some labor work for Blacksburg primary school. It was a lot of fun serving the school, but the special part was meeting the students who are used to serving the school. I was amazed how these kids really worked hard in order to clean their school and maintain it's facilities. This year, I participated with the UAESA (United Arab Emirates Students Association), and we were assigned to work in an old farm in Salem owned by a man named John. We enjoyed clipping the pines, hanging the deer hornes, repainting the farm, and digging a trench. I roughly did 8 hours of volunteering this year from the Big Event.

 

3.2 Run in rememberance is an event that Virginia tech annually organizes to remember the 32 students and faculty members that were the victims of the April 16, 2006 tragedy. 10,000 people registered for the event, and I was honored to be among them. This event reminds us, the Virignia Tech family, of what had happened eight years ago. It is a great chance to feel the great spirit of Virginia Tech. 

 

Habitat for Humanity project that consisted of working in a Re-Store site, visiting the National Children's hospital, and working in a building site. I enjoyed the whole project from the start, but I enjoyed working in the build site the most. My group and I were assigned painting, so we got to learn how the paint work is done. Volunteering helps me understand how things work and becasue of this I always look forward to volunteering. This year, I enjoyed participating in two Habiatat for Humanity projects. We did all sort of labor construction work in. But, what I enjoyed the most is building panels to form the walls. This year, I was able to do 30 hours of volunteering from this kind of of projects.

 

Volunteering in New Zealand was very special because of how our guides made us really feel appreciated. We cleaned streets in Christchurch, planted plants in a park, and collected garbage in sumner beaches. Christchurch has so many volunteering opportunites because of the recent damaging earthequakes.

 

Volunteering in Zayed Marathon was a good break from school and great opportunity to represent a wise man who a lot for our country. We helped organizing the marathon, guiding the participants, informing them about the UAE, and taking pictures with them!

 

International Street Fair was a great chance for the UAESA (United Arab Emirates Students Association) to get together and represent the UAE by cooking food and selling dates. I enjoyed this so much as I got to talk to people from all over, and see their reactions after trying our food, which was for the reccord, amazing!! We reaised around $475 for our club which will be used to buy the club's t-shirts for the new members.   

 

Please feel free to click on the images below to see my comments on them!