My journey as Lead of DSC Kabul University
“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do”
Hello!
This is Mehreen Najm, lead of DSC at Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan.
I want to share my experience about my journey as leader of my university student club.
First of all, I want to tell you what is Developer Student Clubs, Developer Student Clubs or mostly we called it as DSC, is a program for university powered by Google Developers to enhance the skills and capabilities of students in technology. DSC help Students Bridge the gap between theory and practice with Google technologies.
It was the middle of April 2019 that I saw a post on Facebook that for the first time Afghanistan had the opportunity to apply for DSC chapter, I was so much excited about it, I shared it with all my classmates and my friends.
I remember, one day was left till closing of DSC form, I was so much nervous, but I applied. From my university around 6 students applied for this but among from all 2 of them got selected for interview round (me and one boy). I was so happy that yess! I can pass the other round surely, from that day I took a piece of paper & pen and started planning about DSC, it didn’t mean I knew it before that I am the Leader but I had the self-confidence, courage and believe on myself.
After some days, I got email from DSC Team that I have been selected as Lead for my University wohooo! I was so happy and my tears came out.
During my journey I introduced with Googlers and developers around the world and my country.
Before that I had the experience of organizing events, I was event organizer in some Tech communities, but not this much that I achieved skills from DSC.
So step by step I build my team and started hosting events for our students.
Our first event was “Cloud Study Jam”, everyone was looking at me in eye of a leader not a student anymore, my professors, students, and classmates everyone was calling me miss.leader you know how much it feels good and glory.
2 months after that I hosted another workshop by the name of “FlutterInteract19” I remember that day, it was snowing everywhere was traffic jam and crowd but still students came to the workshop and appreciated me.
Have you know that being a girl in Afghanistan is how much hard, some people try to down our courage, emotions, stopping us from promotion but no this time we are proving them girls can also be a Leader, Leader of a community, a university, a country “Yes we are girls!, we are incredible creatures, we believe in each other, we have the ability to transform ideas to actions “
From the day I became DSC Lead, many communities and organizations invited me as mentor & speaker (Garage48 Hackthon, WTM Kabul, and DevFest GDG-Kabul).
Last but not the least, I want to say “no matter in which university you are, in which ecosystem you are living, or which gender you are a male or a female, first build your own skills & values, create your road map, identify your pros and cons, transform your cons to pros by hard working, studying, practicing, growing yourself then help others to grow and develop new ecosystems.”
“One individual with a backbone will accomplish more than a hundred people with a wishbone”
