More relaxed, more sure of myself
“I feel more confident and open-minded, open to doing things I would have been afraid to try before. I feel ready to take on challenges,” said Mount Holyoke College senior Sumaiya Jahan ’25.
Sumaiya Jahan ’25 first arrived on Mount Holyoke College’s campus as a spring admit, giving her a slight feeling of unease as if she was interrupting a conversation, arriving late to the party. Hailing from Rogers Park, a neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side that is densely populated and diverse on nearly every marker, Jahan was taken by the beauty of the campus and the surrounding landscape. Something like impostor syndrome began to set in, and she hid herself away a bit.
Three and a half years later, as she fast approaches Commencement, she said, “I feel more confident and open-minded, open to doing things I would have been afraid to try before. I feel ready to take on challenges.”
Born to Bangladeshi immigrants, Jahan thinks that “going to college is a big deal. It’s also a motivator. I want to make them proud.” As a first-generation and low-income student, Jahan found community in Mount Holyoke’s . As a co-chair of FLIP, she said, “That’s something I am proud I was able to do, to be involved in. I met so many great people.”
Though Jahan entered in the spring, she had her mind set on graduating early. Between her studies and working several jobs on campus as a notetaker, a barista at Francis Perk and as an off-campus tutor for middle schoolers with Mount Holyoke’s Community-Based Learning Program (CBL), she said, “It was a challenge with trying to graduate a semester early, but I’m doing it.”
The idea of Mount Holyoke College first entered Jahan’s sphere while she was involved in college-access programs through Northwestern University, where she worked as a teacher’s assistant during summer breaks. One of the most appealing aspects of Mount Holyoke was its gender diversity and embrace of the LGBTQIA+ community. Jahan identifies as queer and took advantage of the multiple organizations available at school, including , a confidential support network for LGBTQ+ people of color in the community. While at ý, she found the community she had longed for as a teenager. She said, “I was trying to find more queer people because I didn’t have queer friends back home. I wanted to find people like me.”
As she grew up South Asian and is fond of dance, Jahan joined the Raunak Bhangra Dance Team on campus. “It was nice to find people to dance with, and nice that it’s also a part of my culture.” Being raised Muslim, Jahan also became involved with the College’s (MSA).
Something Jahan had never imagined for herself before entering Mount Holyoke College was traveling abroad. She was amazed when she found herself among the ancient ruins of Greece with the College Year in Athens program, which she learned about through Mount Holyoke’s McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives. Jahan cited this time on her own in a foreign country as one of her biggest accomplishments and something she’s deeply proud of. “I never thought I’d travel as much. It made me more open-minded and less scared. It was very empowering,” she said.
A highlight of Mount Holyoke, Jahan said, is “the small classroom vibe, since you get more support academically.” She named Assistant Professor of Psychology Travis Hodges as one of her favorites. “He helped me understand concepts well and helped a lot in office hours. He is also funny, and you can tell he cares about his students.”
As a psychology and sociology double major, Jahan’s interests beyond campus lie somewhere in the intersection of higher education, policy work and possibly non-profits. Additionally, all of Jahan’s internships were, in one way or another, related to education. This summer, she’ll return to Chicago and jump right into a fellowship with Teach For America that will simultaneously have her teaching in Chicago schools while earning teaching credentials.
Last summer, Jahan interned with , a Chicago-based non-profit organization dedicated to creating opportunities for girls in high school who are refugees, immigrants or asylum seekers. Eventually, she thinks she’d like to work for a non-profit with a similar mission.
Jahan said of her journey at ý College, “I’ve become more relaxed, more sure of myself.”
