In this episode, Sonal and Zoe interview Leah Azmi, CHSS Alumna, English and Government double major (with minors in Criminology and Religious Studies), and talk about her extensive campus involvement and more!
Sonal: Welcome to CHSS Connection, a podcast where we interview different students and faculty about all things CHSS, from academics to careers to everything in between. If you're wondering who would make a podcast about the game of chess, that's actually not the CHSS we're talking about. We're referring to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences here at Mason. This is a student success podcast for CHSS students, by CHSS students. And even if you aren't a CHSS student, we're still happy to have you here. I'm one of your hosts, Sonal Prakash. Zoe: And I'm your other host, Zoe Nix. Today we're joined by a graduated English major with a concentration in Creative Writing who works as an advisor for the Patriot Activity Council, Leah Azmi. Leah: Hi, guys. Sonal: Hi, Leah. Zoe: Hello! Now your episode was actually recorded last semester, but we had a bit of a technical issue, so you're back here with us again. Since you were last in this booth, what all has changed for you? Leah: Oh my gosh, suddenly got into a master's program here. It's been quite the ride. I'm now doing a Masters of Science and Management with a graduate certificate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. It's still a mouthful compared to everything that I did in undergrad, but what's new there? And as you just said, I am now the graduate assistant and advisor for the Patriots Activity Council. And yeah, loving it here. Sonal: Awesome. Can you give us kind of an overview of all the programs you're involved in? Because it is, it is a lot. Leah: Currently or previously? Sonal: Both maybe? Leah: So previously I was a double major in English and Government, International Politics with the Schar School. I did a double minor in Religious Studies and Criminology, Law and Society, as well as the concentration and creative writing. I did the Mason Ambassadors, the tour guides for four years. I actually got up to the point of being the president for ambassadors last year, and just now it's being taken over by Sadhana. Love that girl to death. I- Oh my goodness, what else did I do? I helped.. I was one of the first Co-presidents for the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society on our campus. I was a student advisor for the Alpha Lambda Delta Sophomore Honor Society on our campus. I was a part of the Registered Student Organization, or RSO, as I'm going to continue to call it, because oh my gosh, is that a mouthful, lead team, which basically that's a group of students who have been officers or just been involved in our community who are helping current officers and their organizations plan events, figure out funding, vendors, things like that for their clubs to make it so those members are enjoying and getting the most out of those experiences. I was a street team member, which is basically PAC’s volunteer body who helps us just make sure all these events are running smoothly and we get everything out there for all the students to enjoy. I think that's everything from my past. I'm definitely forgetting one thing or two, and currently I'm really just only have my master's program and working as one of the student advisors for PAC. Zoe: Awesome. It's a lot. Quite busy. All right. How did you get involved with those programs? Leah: I applied originally as a double major in the STEM program, actually between physics and astronomy. And then when I went through orientation, I kind of realized this is, all my love to the STEM people, this is not for me. Way too hard, way too much math. So I switched to English and government, which I found out during my tour that you could do here, completely sold me on the school. And then I just kind of picked up the minors and concentrations as I what I literally was collecting them like Pokémon. And then as for just the involvement and things like that, the get connected fair. I was walking around with a group of friends. Somebody was talking about, hey, you want to get better at public speaking? Yes, please. I would very much love to do that. I became a tour guide. And then I attended an event that was put on by PAC. And I was like, whoa, this is a lot of fun. And I ended up meeting the president that night. And she was like, yeah, we have a volunteer group, you should join us. I showed up the following week to their meeting. And then everything just kind of like happened as I went along. I got an e-mail about the honor societies, talked to a professor who got me into another Honor Society when it came to research, classes turned into conferences and just it was one wild ride after another where I was just kind of picking up contacts and they were telling me, hey, this is something you may end up enjoying. And I did indeed enjoy it. Sonal: Wow, that's really cool. That's so awesome that you get to like participate in like a little bit of everything. It feels like you get to wear a lot of different hats and experience a lot of different roles, which seems really cool. Leah: I think the only hat I didn't get to wear is living on campus. I did it all as a commuter student. I don't regret it, but what a time. Sonal: Speaking of Mason Ambassadors, how did you like that? What was your experience like? Leah: I loved it so, so much. I, if you talk to anybody who knew me in high school, I hated doing class presentations. I would hate just getting up in front of class to even introduce myself. So going from that to talking about this university, literally my freshman year when I didn't even have spent like the first year here, it was a massive change. And I genuinely believe that because I got to have that experience, I see a lot of growth in myself that just started from that organization and from that group of people. I still keep contact with a lot of the people, the lot of friends that I made over there who have graduated and kids who are still currently in the program. My little sister Saba, I love you so much. I dragged that girl by her hair into that organization. And now she's the vice president of visits. She's helping train all these rookies. She's helping getting, making sure that all like the data is synced up so we know the numbers properly. So we have enough ambassadors to we, they have enough ambassadors on those tours. It's such a great way of growth, especially like because it goes so much further than just the public speaking. You're making connections with students from different ways of life, different countries, different majors. You're learning all these things about the university you may not have gotten to know because you weren't in like the proper circles to find that out. I thought a lot of stuff about dining. I didn't have a dining plan, but I found out about it because a lot of my friends had dining plans and you got to know about the dining plan to talk about it to the guests. But it's such an enjoyable experience. It was such an enjoyable experience and I continue to recommend it to anybody who's like talking about wanting to get better at public speaking. Sonal: I feel like not all freshmen would be able to kind of jump into that. I feel like I would be so apprehensive. I remember I was so apprehensive. Like to even get involved in anything as a freshman, like going into straight into being an ambassador and promoting the school would have scared me so much. Leah: It's I think that's one of the reasons too, why we have- they have such- they have such a great E board. I continue to say we I'm not there anymore because they literally do like not hold you by the hand, but they really do just kind of like ease you into it. So you have the chances to shadow current ambassadors. If you want to do additional shadows, see how somebody else may talk about something or portray information through a story. You get those opportunities. And then also just the fact of they've got a really nurturing organization and office behind them. It makes it seem less scary. I remember I was like genuinely so terrified when I did my first evaluation and the girl who was doing my eval, she was like, you passed, but oh my gosh, you got to stop that shaking in your voice, girl. Otherwise I would have failed you. And I was like, okay, okay, got it. Sorry, sorry, sorry. But it's, it's lovely. And I think the group that the lead team that they have currently, they're doing such an incredible job and I'm very excited to see how they continue to grow that organization, that environment. Zoe: Out of all of the programs that you've been involved with, what are some of your favorite memories about working? With them? Leah: This is really difficult because I did a lot of the same things over the last four years. I think one of the most memorable things I it was the most unique experience as well. Actually, my sophomore year, I wrote a paper that it got me a scholarship with the Islamic Studies program. And that's how I ended up getting my job as a teaching assistant with them. And the professor who I wrote this paper, like under the guidance of, he kept telling me about this one conference that I just needed to send this paper into. I sent it over there. And they were like, yeah, we would love to have you like, present on it. So that was last or this past April. Excuse me. I went to Ohio and I was talking about it and I was so nervous until I just kind of put into retrospective, I get to talk about one of my favorite subjects for 20 minutes and nobody can stop me. And I did in fact, just like talk about it for 20 minutes. I had technical difficulties where I had to try to like fix the projector for like the first 5 minutes and it's, I didn't get it fixed. I'm, I'm going to be quite frank. So that was really annoying and that kind of threw my nerves off a little bit. But once I got into like that headspace of like once I finished that introduction, it was smooth sailing. I was cracking jokes, I was telling stories. It like it was such a blast and it's still one of my favorite research papers that I have written to this day. Was it the most polished? No, I was a sophomore. I didn't know how to do research properly, but it's one of my favorite because it's a topic that I can always come back to expand on cause the paper was about the devil. It was for my religious studies class obviously, and it was about the projections of the devil in the Abrahamic religions. So I got to take the knowledge that I had about Christianity from being a teaching assistant. I got to talk to one of my professors who was in Judaic studies about how is the devil interpreted there. And then I am Muslim. The professor who was teaching me, he was Muslim. I got to work with him and Oh my God, so many fun stories, so many dumb facts that I just did not need to know. But like, it's genuinely so much fun. I continue to research it. Gosh, it's been almost three years now since I wrote that paper. So yeah, that's got to be my favorite memory that I've had over the last four years. Wow, that's interesting that just doing a paper gave you so many memories like that. Like I feel like I now I'm looking back, I'm like, oh, how many papers did I write that I could have done like something more with that? Like maybe that could have been something you. Know it was well and I told you about this too, Zoe. So it was a joke originally. So like when I was I don't know if my professor knows this. I hope he's not listening to this podcast. But when I had to do the proposal I was like, oh my gosh, I don't have a good idea for this paper. I'm going to write a joke proposal and I wrote in I'm going to write about the devil sent and then for two weeks later I got an e-mail back and he was like, Leah, I want to speak to you before class. I was like, oh. My god. He's going to yell at me like I'm dead and then instead he was just like, this is the most fascinating idea I've heard. Granted, all I said was I want to write about the devil. You definitely need to go into this. I'll support you, and you need to submit it for this scholarship. I was like, OK, OK. And then immediately I thought, what am I going to tell my mother when she finds out I'm writing about the devil? So a lot of memories. And my mom actually came to the conference too with me. So she heard me like, say, yeah, my mom is in the hallway right now. She was a little hesitant about this paper, but like, it's opened so many doors for me and it's helped me form a lot of relationships, not just like within our CHSS community, but like outside of it too. I mean, for god's sakes, I know people now in Ohio because of this paper. Sonal: I think that also like really goes to show that the support of a good professor can go a long way. Leah: Oh, absolutely, Professor Sarwar. I wouldn't have done it without you, Sir. I owe you. Everything. Zoe: And it also shows that like connections are out there. Like, no matter, like even if you think you're just writing this paper for like a class, if you like, put it out there, you, you can make connections. Sonal: I think a lot of students don't realize that the things they're doing every day in their classes and all these little.. something that might seem like it's just like an assignment or like a trivial thing. Yeah, could be so much more than that. If you can, if you, you know, want to- want it to be and take advantage of it. Leah: A. 100% totally agree. Sonal: I was going to say, what is one resource that you think or even an event maybe that you think Mason students should be utilizing more often. Leah: One resource. There's too many resources on this campus. Sonal: I know it's so hard to choose. So, you know, like someone like you who's been kind of in touch with all of these things and obviously managing a lot of different organizations and a lot of different roles. Leah: Oh gosh, I have to say OK, Student resource run by the students, the registered student organization, RSO lead team, this RSO support team in general.I'm always going to give them a shout out because I love them all so, so much. What a wonderful set of co-workers that I've gotten the privilege to work with over the last two years. Like they really care about the officers and they really take care of them so well. So if you have any complications with like knowing when to get a payment request in or things like that, they will help you. They will walk you through it. If you are a new organization, you need to go to that office. Like I cannot emphasize that enough. But as far as like an office resource, I have to say the oh gosh, why am I forgetting the name of the office? This is really bad guys on the second floor of the Johnson Center, the writing and communication office. The Writing Center. Leah: Yes, the Writing Center, yes and I, OK, we had to do a workshop with them. We did that for like the first three years of ambassadors and the team over there is fabulous and amazing. They're so supportive of us. Like they don't do they understand a lot of our writing manual or writing manual, excuse me, tour manual? No, they don't. But they really do give us the best feedback and resources when it comes to trying to perfect and just improve the way that we're presenting this information. Because at the end of the day, are the students really going to remember your entire hour and a half tour? No, but they will remember that really funny story that you told or they'll remember that really dumb fact that you shared about yourself. Granted, like are those the best ways to appeal to students? No, but I have had students come up to me and say, I remember you. You told me about that professor who I'm not going to say what the story is, but like I've had kids come up to me and be like, you ruined the entire surprise of this class for me. And I was like, well, to be quite frank, I didn't think that you would remember that story. I just shared it for giggles. And they're like, well, I did. And that's the whole reason why I came here. And that was the whole reason why I chose this program. And I'm like, should I be touched or concerned that you're so angry with me about this? But like a fabulous group of people, both of those offices I highly recommend, whether you're going for clubs or just for your classes. Sonal: I think that's a good place to kind of, yeah, take a break and now we are kind of moving into a deeper reflection portion. Zoe: And now it's time for the bulletin board. Sonal: The monthly Chess Ambassadors will be at Kiosk A in the Johnson Center from 3:00 to 5:00 PM on October 6th. Zoe: The CHSS Midterm De-Stress event will happen on October 7th in the Horizon Atrium, which is right outside of the mix from 12:00 to 2:00 PM. Take the opportunity to take a break from all the midterm anxiety with lunch from Panera. Sonal: The Link Up Career Mentoring event is happening in the Horizon Atrium, October 8th, 5:30 to 7:00 PM. You'll have the chance to talk to alumni mentors about career paths, ask questions, and practice your networking skills. Zoe: The Modern and Classical Languages Department is hosting the 7th Mason Annual Student Conference in Korean Studies on October 9th from 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM in the Johnson Center Meeting Room A on the 3rd floor. Join for presentations on Korean culture, a traditional Korean song performance, and free pizza. Sonal: The Fall for the Book Festival will be October 6th through 10th. Hear from authors and find awesome new reads. So check out fallforthebook.org for more information on event timings and locations. Zoe: Illusions of the Beyond, hosted by PAC, will take place on October 8th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. Come enjoy magic, illusions, and mind reading in the Johnson Center Cinema. Doors open at 6:45, so make sure to show up early for a good seat. Sonal: And don't forget, spooky season is upon us. PAC is hosting their Once Upon a Scream event at The Ridge 7:00 to 10:00 PM on October 22nd. Get excited for Halloween themed games, food, and a haunted house. Zoe: And now, back to the episode. Sonal: OK, now we're going to transition into the part of the episode where we get a little bit deeper, deeper reflections. What connections have you made through participating in all of these organizations and resources? Leah: I, Oh my goodness, I think every single connection that I've made has been so valuable in so many different ways because even if the connection is just like this person has irritated me, it's taught me like, how do you deal with conflict? That graduate certificate's going to come in handy hopefully. But regardless, it's every single person that I've met has added something really valuable to my experience. Two of the friends that I made in ambassadors or actually I made both of them in pack, Kathy and Brandon, I ended up introducing them to ambassadors and then they joined me the following semester over there. All these kids that I've met, an ambassador is like my little mentees, like I, I literally called them my kiddos. They've taught me so much about how to be an advisor and honestly just how to be like a really good role model. It's taught me a lot about how you have to look out for one another, especially if you're in an organization where you're so used to it, but these kids are brand new to it, understanding their different perspectives. And how can you incorporate that and be consciously like aware when you're going into a new space that these people are going to have experiences that you're not going to recognize or you're not really even aware of? It's honestly, it's, it sounds very cheesy, but it's definitely changed my world view and the way that I interact with people in a day-to-day basis. And it's, and I think that's also been something that's really been helpful, especially in like this master's program and my position with advising because I, they kind of inadvertently helped prepare me for it since it was constantly something that I was aware of with them. Zoe: That’s awesome. So many great connections that you built, like through doing all these different things you've done so much and like getting to be able to help students sort of to acclimate not just to Mason, but also to like the programs that they're getting involved with. And like, I think that's such like a valuable experience to have. And like that you're still continuing to do that even though, like you've graduated, you're on your master's program now and you're still working to help students acclimate and like be their best selves. I think that's really cool. Leah: Thank you. I mean, you never stop learning, right? There's always going to be something that you're able to learn from. And all you can kind of hope for is to help support people to kind of keep their minds open and do the same thing. Sonal: I was going to ask too, with making all these connections like do you feel like you know your time with those resources like made you closer to like the Mason community? Leah: Oh, definitely. I don't think that I would have been able to talk so much about Mason just in general if I hadn't gotten to, I mean, being a commuter student and I already know the rep that Mason has as a commuter school. Like it would have been so easy to fall into the trap of just coming on campus, going to class and then going home. I had to like actively make myself like stop going to my car at some point it just be like, OK, explore what else is there and it's I Mason is such a diverse place. You only really get to understand how diverse it is if you're talking to your classmates, if you're talking to clubmates, if you're actively like I would do kiosks for all these different groups and organizations and you would see so many different types of people walking by, talking, speaking in different languages, wearing different styles of clothing. You hear and see so much. If you just really take the time, like like I said, you're continuously learning to the point of you don't even need to talk to a person to understand just what Mason's community is. And there really isn't any fit definition to it. It is what we make of it. Sonal: Yeah, definitely. I think that's a huge thing. It's what we make of it. It is very, I agree, easy to fall into the trap of. And I did for a while too, like just like go to class, go home, go to class, go home, like yeah, and and not really, yeah, taking the time to explore, find out, you know, who is around, what is around. But it really seems like, you know, that's what enriches like the Mason experience and is being able to engage with the community. And I'm hoping to do that more myself actually too, in my last year, hopefully before I go, I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as possible while I'm still a student. But I'm curious to know, like, how do you think these extracurricular experiences supported your experiences in the classroom? Leah: I definitely think that- I mean with ambassadors, for instance, I became more confident to speak my mind, which is a huge thing when you need to do like with my English and government classes, group projects, we're a massive part of it. And so not only did was I able to actually get up in those classes and start talking, but also just sharing my opinion. If I didn't agree with the plan on something, I could confidently say, hey, I don't think this is a good idea. And then also offer up a counter plan. Aside from that, just like learning how to think differently depending on like the subject that you do, obviously you're going to have like a different mindset and a different way of thinking to go about it. And I think going between so many different organizations that were calling for so many different ways for me to think and different factors to take into consideration. It was something that I began to inherently do when I was approaching different classes because I was constantly going from like a criminology class to government and then I'm going back to English and then I have to do be a TA for religious studies. All those involve different ways of thinking and different ways of speaking too, inherently in the way that you, excuse me, in the way that you present information. So I think that in all the extracurriculars, that was something that was extremely helpful because if you're jumping between so many different things, then obviously you're going to have to remember many different things and many different resources essentially. Zoe: And speaking of like jumping between so many different things, I sort of like, I wonder how like you experience like burnout. Like do do you ever get burnt out? How do you like stay on top of that? Like maybe avoid it or like, you know, how do you balance everything? Leah: I remember getting asked this question the first time I did this episode and I remember saying that I was actually burnt out when I did the episode. I confidently say that I actually don't get burnout as often anymore, and I think I have an answer for that now, at least for myself. And one of those things was just kind of understanding my own point of pressure. I don't think that's going to make any sense. It'll probably make more sense as I continue to explain it though. One thing that I've done I've pretty much just implemented into my study routine is a Pomodoro timer. So you know, those 45 minutes of studying and then you get like a five minute break. Yeah, I think that's the correct ratio there. That just gave me a really easy way to kind of jump between different assignments and different projects, subjects, etcetera. And it also kind of prevented me from just going too deep down the rabbit hole. And I think I've, I've definitely noticed this about myself. Once I go down a rabbit hole, it is very easy for me to just get lost down there to the point of it does cause me to burn out. But aside from that, I also had to take a lot of advice from my one of my previous supervisors, Esther for RSO lead team. She constantly told me, you know, you have to be able to also emphasize your personal life. And that was something that this year I've purposefully put in times of spending with my sister, with my friends, with previous co-workers. I'm actually planning on having a late lunch on Thursday with one of my previous co-workers, Misha. And then on Saturday I'm grabbing matcha with my other previous co-worker, Becca. Just constantly making sure that I'm not just devoting myself to school, but also to myself and my relationships. That's something that's.. I think kept me in a very sane mindset, for lack of better words. Sonal: Yeah, I get that a lot. I feel like sometimes you have to like, schedule those things and like when you, when the rest of your life is on a schedule and everything else is like time, like I have to, I can't like, trust myself to just, you know, do those things unless I schedule it in advance intentionally, you know? Leah: Yeah. And I think it also kind of works as like a double edged thing because I was so bad at this my senior year, both Becca and my shirt in their senior year. So this is me purposely being like, please take care of yourself. Like I love you both to death. Please take care of yourselves. Sonal: Definitely. That's really important. Rest is equally as important, as you know, I find that I'm so much more productive if I actually rest and, like, take time out of my day to do something for fun or for joy or just for myself, you know, then yeah, so I get that. Zoe: So we've sort of talked about your growth like academically, professionally, all these sorts of different things from these organizations. So I sort of want like, I'm wondering, have you seen any like personal growth, like outside of school, outside of work, how do you see these organizations sort of helping you grow? Sonal: As an individual, maybe. Leah: Yeah. Wait, this is actually a really difficult question. I think the best way for me to answer that is I'm definitely seeing more confidence in myself. Like when I was talking about like in academics, you know, I'm able to speak my mind more often. I'm able to do that now at home. Just in general, I think when I've seen something that works really, really well with like my friends and things like that, I tried to also emulate that. When I am like at home, if I've seen like a sort of behavior activity that I really, really like, then that's something I try to implement to my own schedule. So like with the burnout, I think that's actually a huge personal growth anyways because I, I honestly would just push myself until I hit burnout and then I would just keep going because I really did need to just get things done. So that in itself, just recognizing when I have hit that point and also taking just a step back and really emphasizing self-care and making sure that I'm OK and I'm doing well. I think that's going to be the biggest personal growth that I've had. Sonal: That's great. I mean, not this is the perfect time for those, like, things to happen so that you can kind of learn how to regulate and, you know, keep your, you know, self together when you're going out into the real world and getting ready to work, right. Like being able to balance those things. Like, I feel like now is the time, especially when I'm trying to like, nail those, you know, things down. Zoe: Yeah. Good period for learning. OK, so beyond like taking care of yourself, what other advice might you have for listeners? Leah: Explore. Be very curious. I think the only reason why I was able to do as many things that I did in my undergrad was because I got very curious about who were those people tabling over there? How did this event work? How can I get better at public speaking? Like if you don't ask questions, you're never going to get answers and possibly find out about opportunities. And honestly, I don't know why, I just remembered this my junior year, so there's an admissions event, like a really big admissions event in the spring called Spring Preview. And we invite admitted students to come attend that. And every single year they invite one of the ambassadors to give the speech. And so my junior year, I was chosen as such. And I remember ending my speech. I don't remember a lot about the speech that I gave. It's honestly.. it's kind of a bore. But I do remember that I ended it by telling them to take risks. And that's, if I had to sum up my undergrad, it was the fact of I took risks. Because if again, if you don't take those chances, then how are you going to find out the potential that you have and just how much you can learn? Sonal: That's great advice. Zoe: Yes, that's beautiful, actually beautiful. Sonal: Yeah. No risk, no reward. Leah: Yeah, exactly. And I think to Mason, it's not even just a no risk, no reward. You have a safety net. You can take the risk to try to get that scholarship and it doesn't matter. It doesn't disqualify you for trying to go for another scholarship if you don't get it. You can try and win that competition for your essay. So what if you lose? You're going to get feedback on how to get better at it. Every single failure, even then is a chance to learn. God knows that I have failed at plenty of things and I didn't stop there. I asked what did I do wrong and how can I get better from there? Sonal: Very wise. Leah: Thank you. Sonal: And if students wanted to get involved on campus, how would you recommend they'd do that other than just I think you mentioned the Get Connected Fair that and like people tabling any other ways to get? Leah: Involved Mason 360 Walk into the student involvement office, talk to people that you see at the kiosk. I mean, you said tabling, but honestly, that is just a really good way to go about it. There's plenty of things around here. You've got the voice walls all along Wilkins Plaza. There's posters, you've got all the TV's and the student centers that are showing all of these posters. It you have that advertisements all around you, all you got to do is take your phone out, scan a QR code or talk to somebody and be like, what's that? Sonal: Yeah. I think paying attention is key. Leah: Being aware of your surroundings. Sonal: Yeah, I think so many people just like, walk through like just like zombies, like they, they're like headed for their destination and that's it. Leah: Stop and smell the roses. Sonal: Basically, yeah, yeah, definitely. Zoe: All right, is there anything or anyone you would like to shout out or promote? Leah: Oh. I do have to thank Professor John Farina because he's the man that I TA-ed for for close to three years. And he the first class that I took my freshman year was his religion and literature class. And that was definitely the catalyst for everything that I've done this far. And he's just been an amazing supervisor and mentor, and I'm so grateful to him. My current supervisors, Shika and Jeff, Oh my God, those two are amazing. They're the supervisors for the Patriots Activities Council. And I think that I've learned, I have, I don't think, I know I have learned so much from the both of them. The way that they handle not just these events, but our students. It's inspiring. And I continue to learn from them every single day. My previous supervisors, A and Esther for the RSO lead team, they're amazing, incredible individuals and I've definitely taken a lot of notes on how to be an advisor from the two of them. Oh, there's too many people, Guys, wait, this is so bad. I think just like every single professor that I've taken a class from, the students I've learned with or like TA-ed for, I've genuinely like learned so many things from the people that have taught me or I or that I have been teaching. And I think that because of all the experiences I've gotten, I've gotten to a place where I feel so confident in whatever is happening down the road. I don't know what's happening post post grad, but we're going to find out. I'm not really scared about what's going to happen in the future because of all those people that have been a part of my journey this far. Sonal: I feel like you, you laid out like, like a very ideal like vision of what you're under- like what a freshman's like dream of their undergrad can be. You know what I mean? Like. Leah: If they want to look at my resume, it really was not that much of A dream because they're going to see like 3 years I was doing this and it's just like, oh, I mean, we were talking about it previously. I was tired of talking about it. It's it's a lot of pressure, but it was so much fun and I think the pressure was genuinely worth it because what is it? Pressure makes diamonds. That feels a little presumptuous. I'm calling myself a diamond now that I'm thinking about that. Can we go move on to the next question? Sonal: I can confirm you are a diamond. Leah: I appreciate that. Sonal: Well, thank you so much for coming on. I think that was.. Zoe: Yeah, all we have left is where can listeners find you? Leah: I don't have Instagram or anything if you want to find me on LinkedIn LEAH AZMI that's my last name Leah Azmi, find me follow me. I'd love to talk about it. I'd love to talk about any of this stuff, but no thank you guys. You guys have been so amazing. Sonal: Thank you and now I can go actually look at your resume and I will. Zoe: Yeah, we, we, we can determine. Sonal: But it was great talking to you. Thank you. Leah: Same here. Thank you guys. I loved getting to revisit all of this. Yeah, this has been a blast.. Sonal: Yeah, I think that's all we had. And if there's anything, if there is there anything else that we you wanted to add? Leah: Go to Illusions of the Beyond October 9th at the Johnson Center Cinema, and Once Upon a Scream October 22nd at The Ridge. You're going to have a blast. They're both of our Halloween events and oh my god, did these kids work so hard to put it on. Yeah, that's it. Sonal: And that brings us to the end of episode 2 and I've noticed you've been real quiet, but don't forget, the mic works both ways. We'd love to hear any thoughts or questions that you might have for future guests or episodes. Send us your ideas or even requests to be in an episode by emailing us at chsspod@gmu.edu. Zoe: If you do enjoy the show and would like to express your support, there are a few things you can do. You can leave a review wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can help by word of mouth, either by telling someone directly who might be interested in the show or posting about it on social media, tagging @chsspod. All these things help support the show and we appreciate anyone who has done so or will do so in the future. Thank you for listening to this episode of CHSS Connection. This podcast is hosted and written by Sonal Prakash and Zoe Nix. Our audio engineer is Dennis Gabitov. Our supervisor is Eleana Velasco. This podcast is produced by George Mason University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences undergraduate academic affairs. Special thanks to the Mason Innovation Exchange for access to the recording studio. The podcast could not happen without them. Sonal: This project was developed in collaboration with Career Services and the On Campus Internship Program. If you love the show and want to interact with more of our content, follow us on Instagram at CHSS Pod or check out the CHSS website where there's an ongoing library of our episodes. Zoe: Once again, thanks for tuning in and we hope you'll join us next time.