Tamara Asad, '04

Growing into Yourself

I'm Tamara Asad, and I just received my degrees in political science and peace and conflict studies. I'm from Jerusalem, Palestine.

This next year is going to be an important one for me. I'm taking a year off from academics to do an internship with a local law firm. Then I'm headed to Miami, Florida to go to law school.

I owe so much to working with my professors at Guilford. They really helped me not only focus my interests, but also develop those interests and my innate skills into something that would be helpful for me down the road.

I came to Guilford knowing what I wanted to do, and I stuck to it. But I also I added another major, and did two concentrations. I got involved in the community, in different clubs and organizations. The worst thing I could have done was to not explore my options.

I actually came pretty close to doing exactly that. When I came in, I chose the group of people that I wanted to associate with, and it took most of my first-year to get beyond that. It's something that I think a lot of international students do, and shouldn't—they get to America and find someone from their country and just stay with them. I think that international students serve as sort of unofficial diplomats, and by sticking together we're not taking advantage of the opportunity to introduce ourselves, and our cultures, to this new, different place.

Guilford taught me that you can be yourself all the time, and that you'll be most successful as that person. You don't have to put up a face or do something in order to satisfy other people—all they really want to see is you. Every person is a unique individual, and ever unique individual can get somewhere in life if you really work on developing that individual and not some pretty mask.

It was so interesting being with so many different people, who had so many different experiences, in all of my Guilford classes. One of my favorite classes was Voices of Liberation with Shelini Harris. I'm from a place of extreme religious conflict, and I'm on what is considered the side of resistance, which may explain why the course appealed to me so much. This was a class where the students had many different mentalities and perspectives, which made the class really powerful. It was really inspiring for me, and definitely helped me see how I can do to help down the road for my people, my country. I took a lot away from that class.

I've definitely grown since coming to Guilford. I look back to the person I was four years ago and don't even recognize her. Guilford taught me better communication skills, to be accepting of other views, to not be stubborn, as I generally am. Really, the most valuable thing I've learned is to listen, and to open my eyes; there are more options than I could ever have expected.