I am. A Heritage Story from Tasneem Zaihra Rizvi brought to you by Western Union
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My Cultural Heritage Story begins with a drop that consists of hopes and aspirations that has led into a ripple of inspiration and determination. And now, I am hoping that turns into a wave that not only satisfies my own quench to give back to society and achieve the impossible but just as importantly to give back to society and my cultural heritage. I would like the next generation to also benefit from my own cultural heritage while becoming a vibrant product of the community for all to partake in.
My cultural heritage is who I am, where I have come from, is my identity and a major part of who I am. As it’s commonly said, you can take the Indian out of India, but you can’t take India out of the Indian. Such true words that echoes my sentiments. I have applied all that I have learnt from my cultural heritage in my daily life and career as I go about my life trying to reach for the stars one day at a time. I strongly feel that I have been able to achieve what I have so far directly due to my energetic cultural heritage.
Well, here I am. Officially, I guess, I am well on my way within the pulsating world of Statistics. ‘Statistics’ – a word many cringed as I mentioned my background, as if it was worse than root canal. However, Statistics, where I am both in the academic as well as research sector, has been an enriching experience for me so far. As clichéd as it may sound, my journey towards achieving the very best, and going for the top, has truly been a wonderful and thrilling ride. And it has just begun.
The fact remains that I come from a very humble background. I was born and raised in a small town in north India; a place where usually only a few can have the audacity of even dreaming and reaching for the skies. And yet here I am today after breaking all shackles and freeing myself from all norms, striving towards a professional career. However, I have never forgotten where I have come from, my background and what my cultural heritage has taught and inspired me. I would like to be an inspiration to all those women out there who dare to dream and reach for the stars.
Despite coming from a humble background and raised in a country that many consider as a third-world, I have been able to overcome all my obstacles and critics; and ignored the social norms, to pursue my goals while making an overall positive difference to society. I was able to achieve much despite being raised in area where even the basics such as water and electricity is considered a luxury.
My aim is to touch the lives of others and motivate others to take full advantage of their own lives, dreams and destiny, and go after the impossible. I am attempting to do that through the world of education where I personally interact with many who are the future of this world. I hope through my teachings, I can reach out to the various students and inspire them to be all that they can be. My ideas and achievements are a mirror image of my parents, my teachers and my overall education, a major part of which was in north India.
I was also fortunate enough to be motivated by all my teachers in general but especially my high school math teacher. I still remember her constantly reminding us in class that though we live in a small town with only six hours or so of power supply; yet that won’t be written anywhere on our transcripts.
She inspired me greatly and gave me the courage and determination to dream and excel beyond the horizons that our eyes can see despite any and all odds. I acquired from her teachings along with my father’s preaching that it does not matter what kind of society we are born in or the lack of resources we may have, what truly matters is the kind of society we leave behind, and the people we touch.
These words have left an everlasting impression on me as I strive to continue on that path with these words of my teacher, as my guiding light and motivation. When you have lived in that environment, and seen first-hand, the poverty and obstacles around you, it gives you that drive with a keen sense of guts to first make a difference in your own life, and then give back to society through your achievements and the network you create. We come across many people, and there are only a few that leave their footprints and the cultural heritage stamp on our hearts. Hence, it is vital to instill the values and principles that are a result of our cultural heritage, and become a contributing citizen of wherever our paths lead us to.
After attending renowned private Catholic schools throughout my education till high school where I was provided one of the best education to assist me with my dreams and goals, I finally went to Aligarh Muslim University where I completed my Bachelors, Masters as well as a MPhil degree. I have always been determined and attempted to reach for the stars regardless. In India, as I was pursuing my Bachelors in Statistics Honors, I achieved the University Gold-Medal for securing a first position in the Faculty of Science.
I not only won another University Gold-Medal while doing my Masters in Operations Research for securing a first position in the same Faculty, but this time I also won the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award for academic excellence in the MSc exam conducted nationally by the Central Universities of India. Out of millions of students literally, I was of one 15 students selected for this notable award. As a result,
I along with the other winners were personally invited by the then Prime Minister of India to sit with him in his private box on a national holiday, Republic Day, to watch the major Parade in the nation’s capital. This was a moment of pride not only for my family and friends, but a pride for the country and my community as well. There was no looking back for me at that point. I wanted to fully grasp life, and go where others seldom even dream of going.
For a female in that region to travel abroad alone let alone for educational purposes was a distant thought. But I was determined to take advantage of all her resources and skills to reach the mountain top. So in 2005, I arrived in this great nation of opportunities to further pursue my education. Of course, as I had never seldom ventured out of my small town let alone traveling by her self except for my education, I was a little overwhelmed, a little apprehensive of the unknown, and what laid ahead, and had to get adjusted to this new environment.
But I overcame all of my fears and anxiety, and achieved what I came here for. By beating all odds and continuing to beat all it all, I was able to cross the seven seas to pursue my doctorate. I completed my PhD in Statistics in summer of 2009 from the University of Windsor in Ontario Canada. My dissertation was on “Inference on some epidemiological indices and variance function in semi-parametric analysis of count data”.
My research included the analysis of correlated and clustered counts, and proportions which occur frequently in the field of biostatistics. While at the University, I also wanted to give back to the community here in Canada that gave me so much, including another amazing chapter and a new beginning of my life, and was a major part of my achieving yet another one of my goals. So I volunteered a lot of my time as well in between my studies. There were many including as a council member of the Graduate Student Society which represented the Canadian Federation of Students on my campus. That was just one of many. I also actively volunteered for a wonderful organization that helped students in India as well.
Along the way, I have added to my overall credentials and achievements, attaining many awards and successes. During the 23rd New England Statistics Symposium, CT, I was awarded an Honorable mention for the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center / Student Research Award Competition. I was also covered in AMStatNews (ASA) magazine. As I progressed towards completing my PhD, I was often confused about the path to take next. I contemplated about teaching, research and the corporate world, and all of its pros and cons. I guess God does work in mysterious ways as teaching was something I was leaning towards, and has now become my calling.
I am currently working as an Assistant Professor at a University in Canada while also engaged in various research. I have also had the pleasure of giving various talks and presentations both in Canada as well as the USA. Regarding my research, I have also written a few papers as well that were published in various reputable journals. I still remember my first day of teaching. Excited but nervous, anxious but uneasy not knowing what exactly lied ahead. How the students would be, how they would respond to my teaching, if I would be able to convey all the materials effectively, how much should I move around in the class, if I should be more of a mentor than a teacher?
So many thoughts in my head, so much to teach and learn, as the butterflies in my stomach buzzed about. While teaching, I also enrolled in Diploma in University Teaching (DUT). It’s been a great program, giving me a better insight to the world of teaching with some fantastic resources. It has provided me with the knowledge of teaching in relation to an academic discipline, skills related to educational design and to the assessment of teaching-learning interactions. DUT has helped me in further defining my teaching goals more precisely.
I am constantly encouraging my own students to excel, to do their best, achieve all that they can, strive for their dreams and to be the best they can. When my students come to know of my background and cultural heritage, where I came from, how that has shaped my life, my identity, and made me who I am, and how I have been able to achieve much, and continue to do so, they are motivated and geared to take on the world as well, come what may.
I try to reach out to my students, interacting with them on a individual level and rallying them with motivating and encouraging words not to hold back, or let anyone hold them back, and conquer their fears and accomplish their goals. You can see the sparkle in some of the students’ eyes as reality sets in that they too can do be whatever they want to be, and achieving whatever they want to be. I attempt to offer various opportunities for students to fine-tune their overall skills and gain additional experiences.
I try to actively find ways to help my students and reach out to them. As a teacher, my goal became not only to educate the students to its fullest but also give them a reason to learn and be a part of the learning. I would do my best to instill in them a zest for the subject by making the lectures more interactive, interesting and dialogue based. Teaching for me is similar to the art of pottery, where as teachers; we play the role of a potter who moulds the students who are like unshaped clay, in the best possible form with new ideas, thoughts and information. Enlisting these eager students into the world of education, they can then go into the real world armed with new knowledge, finding their own selves, drawing their own conclusions, creating an identity, and creating new frontier. I want to encourage my students to achieve their true potential.
I would like to instill self confidence in them to a level where they can have confidence in themselves and aspire to do something which they perhaps thought they could not do when they came to class for the first time. I believe in an egalitarian classroom where both teacher and student are partners. Education is a two-way process. I believe that as a teacher my role is to act as catalyst in their learning process by encouraging them to ask questions and by continuously reminding them that no question is trivial and asking questions is the first step towards the process of learning.
I would like to focus on the individual student as best as I can while listening listen to their concerns, and provide guidance, support and encouragement. I would say that I am a good teacher if I can help my students not only get a better understanding of the subject I am teaching but actually help him or her in the overall development of his or her personality, while encouraging them to develop a sense of belonging to this society and a sense of giving back. If I succeed in motivating even one student I would be glad, as for me, even one rose in my garden is better than none. I would like to strike a balance between teaching and with research as also being an essential part of my job function.
Teaching does matter and I believe it should be recognized in all its various forms as it opens the minds. Research is just as vital as it opens new frontiers. Both are vial and needed in their respective ways. Both the academic and the volunteer areas have fine-tuned my various abilities enabling me with a very strong work ethic. As a result, I am self-motivated, detail-oriented and a goal achiever, striving to attain the very best in all the endeavors that I embark upon. I hope that my passion for challenges and education helps towards making a little difference in learning and research while making some difference wherever I go and whoever I meet. There is one other thing that this journey has provided me with, and that’s my husband, Hasan Rizvi who is from the USA.
He has been my pillar of support and strength, and has been the next chapter of my life’s inspiration. If he wasn’t there, then I am certain I would hesitate on doing certain things. He loves to proudly proclaim that he is originally from Allahabad, where his mother was born and raised completing her college there, before immigrating to the United States with her husband, my father-in-law.
My husband believes that this part of his cultural heritage, i.e. Allahabad has produced two giants contributing towards India, namely Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru and Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. As a result, my husband is proud to have some major ties with this city. Even though my husband came to the United States when he was two years, with his father who was coming here with his own dreams and hopes, for residency after completing his medical degree at King George Med School in Lucknow, due to his parents, he has never let go of his cultural heritage as his parents took him back to India for regular visits as he was growing up. My husband feels proud to have two great and powerful countries as part of his cultural heritage. My husband has also been very successful in his own right as he continuously embarks on his own dreams and goals with his business and other activities which includes various non-profit, volunteer and political purists. Like his father, he has established himself well in society giving back to it as much as he can.
There are those in the world who work and strive for their own personal satisfaction from within. And then there are those who go out to make a difference in the lives of others, giving meaning and satisfaction in their own lives. We come across these handfuls who are set out to make an lasting impression on others and their lives. Their goal is to make a positive difference in the lives of others and assist them to achieve their dreams.
I would like to think that I am in this later category. I want to touch as many lives as I can, help as many people as can, inspire as many people as I can as I walk about this world. Hence, I choose this noble profession of teaching as an avenue to achieve a major part of my goals. I would like to share with others, what I have learned so far, even though I still have many miles to go, something that I am looking forward to, as I fondly cherish the memories. One thing is to enjoy the journey itself, and not to be blinded by the goal.
Have fun in the process, taking one day at a time. Relax, be yourself, and don’t let anything take over your life. It should revolve around you, and not the other way around. Always believe in yourself, have faith and trust the many decisions you take.
Thank you.
Tasneem Zaihra Rizvi
Bloomfield, NJ
