Reflection on my AMAL journey😉
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
It’s time to join dots backwards and recall all my memories about what I learned in Amal academy which is one of the best thing happened to me. It shifted my mindset, increased positivity, built self-confidence and helped me discover a strong connection to myself.
AMAL Academy😉
For those of my followers who don’t know what AMAL is, Amal is an Education startup funded by Stanford University that teaches professional skills to students and corporations. Amal provides various career development skills and helps Pakistani youth build bridges to their career aspirations. It is a professional learning academy that develops skills fundamental to pursuing a career. It was founded in 2013 by Stanford University graduates Benje Williams and Kunal Chawla and is funded by Acumen Fund, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Echoing Green and Dr. Paul Kim.
AMAL Fellowship Program😍
WHAT: A Stanford University and PepsiCo supported 3-month online program to develop professional skills needed for a successful career and life
FOR WHOM: 3rd/final years, recent graduates, or anyone interested in starting their careers, or self improvement
WHY NOW: With COVID-19, it’s time to invest in your soft-skills and learn to thrive in a digital environment
WHAT’S OFFERED:
- Interactive sessions and scenario-based projects
- Communication skills for both in-person and remote-work environments
- Confidence, public speaking and leadership skills
- Job preparation, entrepreneurship, resume building
- Career counseling with teams from Fulbright, LUMS, Harvard, and others
- Opportunities for in-person meetups based on fellows’ preferences
- Alumni network of 6,400+ fellows with ongoing support
- Printed certificate of completion with Stanford and PepsiCo
RESULTS: 1,500+ fellows graduated online in 2020 and 6,400+ alumni with 80% job offer rate and successful careers (entrepreneurship, freelancing, content creation, and others)
TIME & FORMAT: Spanning 3 months and delivered online with interactive sessions and scenario-based projects. Designed to be manageable by full-time students or job holders
FEE: One-time fee of Rs. 2,000 upon selection. The actual cost of Rs. 40,000 is covered by PepsiCo Pakistan
Life Before AMAL😥😪
Before becoming a part of this fellowship, I was only involved in my academic activities, and during my spare time, I was just sitting there and scrolling through social media. Although in my university life, I was a very hardworking student, due to overthinking related to my future, I used to have a negative perception of the future and because of that, I started losing self-confidence and motivation to move forward, which is the key to success. I was not taking part in any sort of co-curricular activities. In that state of mind, I was not focusing on any of my future goals.
One day, I met my friend who was very busy in his Laptop and was enjoying working for hours and I was so curious that how come he is really happy working so I asked him what is he doing. He told me about Amal Fellowship Program. So, I just applied for the fellowship.
Unluckily, I was not considered for the fellowship. But I was passionately waiting for the next batch to start, and I kept on checking for the applications to open. Then I applied once again in this fellowship.
Life after Amal😇😍😋
Firstly I would like to appreciate the efforts of Ma’am Rabeea(PM) and Ma’am Zarafshan (PA). The start of the fellowship was focused on knowing yourself better. And gradually we moved to the depths of knowing about our future goals and getting a clearer idea about what I want to achieve in my career journey. During the first week after attending online sessions, I started feeling the change in myself. I started having a different vision about my future and steps that I might be taking to improve myself in all fields of life.
What Amal brought in my Life😉
This fellowship has uncountable positive impacts on my life. It completely changed my perception regarding life, dreams and self-discovery. It made me realized the importance of knowing your abilities. Some of the gifts, that I got from Amal Fellowship are:
- Positivity: In the most recent online course, we learned about the 5 secrets of positive thinking that changed my thoughts entirely.
- Coming out of your comfort-zone: Having an extra full-time activity either then my studies made me pushed out through my comfort zone and I started learning to manage many things at a time. And I realized that it is very important to move out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve your dreams in your life.
- Professional Development: Learning some really important professional skills, gave me an insight into the important teachings, for example, leadership, teamwork, business writing skills, showing gratitude, and being positive.
- Never Give up: The motivation to never stop and give up on your dreams is what I get through this fellowship journey. now I have learned that every failure leads you one step ahead towards success.
Life Learning Impact:
My personal favorite trait which AMAL helped me develop is to push myself an extra-mile and leave my comfort zone in every difficult situation in my life. I still remember when I was so occupied with work and decide to leave this fellowship but in one of our session Ma’am Rabeea appreciated Ma’am Zarafshan who is brilliantly managing her studies while being Program Assistant in Amal fellowship. Her positivity and energy motivated me to face this difficulty with sheer determination and decided to push myself and complete what I started happily and willingly. Despite my Final Exams two days after I am happy to write few lines for this journey which is a memorable experience of my life.
Time to say Goodbye
Goodbye are always hard to say but this one is heart drenching one. Soon my weekends will be boring and normal. This charm of getting up early at 9am in morning and to freshen up quickly to make tea so that I can enjoy it with lovely before session Gup-shup.
Sadly, this fellowship is ending in about 2 weeks, and I will be missing the weekend sessions, all the laughter, discussions, and all my fellows.
At the end, I would like to Thank Amal again for providing a platform for fresh graduates to learn important professional skills that are not taught in any educational institutions and organizations.
