Student Spotlight - Beenish Iqbal

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

My name is Beenish Iqbal; I relocated to Seattle with my family (two boys and husband) in 2015 from Toronto, Canada. I love children and enjoy staying connected with nearly all age groups. This interest helped me in exploring myself, and I started volunteering in my kids' school. I joined the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and became an active parent advocating for children's needs in and beyond the classroom. Soon, I realized that this is something I would love to do daily and decided to adopt teaching as a career. I am accelerating my volunteer career parallel to academics, and they both make me stronger in their own unique way.

Why did you choose EvCC?

Everett Community College has always been my favorite place to begin this journey; there were a lot of success stories I heard from their alumni. This community college was also close to my home, and the admission staff made me feel welcome.

What are your educational and career plans? What do you plan to do next?

My end-term goal is to do Principal Certification. I have decided to follow the path of teaching. I am admitted to the SPED (Special Education & Elementary Education) Dual Endorsement Program at Western Washington University (Bellingham). The program will begin in the fall of 2021. I want to learn all about education and the way it is shaping juvenile minds; managing the classroom environment involving parents in their child’s education journey, and most importantly, how the multicultural perspective is growing in the classrooms from the grassroots level. In all, I want to learn everything that happens in the classroom on the front and backend. Because only then, I could make better decisions for the people working in my team.

What degree did you earn?

I have earned an Associate Degree in Elementary Education.

What interested you about your program?

My program was interesting since it has the essence of everything; classes for understanding the importance of advocacy, child behavior, identification of personal bias, and highlighting the benefits of building multicultural classroom communities. I also learned to identify art, the value of proper nutrition, developed skills such as problem-solving, enthusiasm, leadership, cultural competency, and public speaking.

How do you think the skills you learned at EvCC are helping you reach your goals?

Academic staff needs to correspond with parents and families. My cultural competency skill will help me in accommodating different cultural perspectives of the families. Public speaking will help me in presentations, meetings, and in all those avenues where I will stand to speak. Daily, school staff embraces unique challenges, and problem-solving skills will help me in making those tough decisions. All these skills that I learned at EvCC will eventually prepare me for the leadership role.

Describe the best experience you had at EvCC.

There are fantastic memories I made while being a student. But among them, there is one experience that I will never forget and that is experiencing the diverse cultures of EvCC.

I am fond of learning about different cultures and the norms of the people living in other parts of the world. EvCC has provided this unique opportunity for learning and personal growth. My peers were from South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Mexico, India, Brazil, Pakistan, and China. We learned from each other, participated in academic challenges, and grew as students. This experience is not mentioned in any transcript, but it helped me in developing the most important skill of cultural competency, which is a major requirement of the career I am planning for.

Who has helped you succeed at EvCC? What did that person do to help you?

I have been helped by many people. When I look at my achievements I can see the contribution of all the people I met in this journey. My first support was (Director of Admissions) Maria Larsen and (Transitional Studies Instructor) Alanna Yang, and then I was directed to the academic advisor (and Education Instructor) Paula S. Krock; she was my mentor and a great person to learn from. She was always ready to help and was supportive of all the good work. It was tough to meet academic challenges while being a virtual student, but Mrs. Krock tried to make this easy. Her video-recorded lectures made it possible for me to complete classes with good grades. Everett Community College's teachers are the best. They all helped me in accelerating into the program and shared as many resources as they can to facilitate virtual learning. Then my family, parents, teachers, and most importantly, one person who believes in me and filled my path to put theoretical learning in action, my friend Jen Hirman.

What advice do you have for new students?

I only want to say: Believe in yourself; set realistic goals and work hard to achieve them. If you fail in achieving something, consider it as an opportunity for growth; learn from the mistakes and build yourself stronger than before. Be consistent, focused, and celebrate small victories.