Why am I starting this blog?
I’m Sadaf, a first-generation Muslim immigrant, a stay-at-home mom, and a STEM student. Being a first-generation immigrant, navigating career and life can be difficult but having role models with similar backgrounds and appearances can motivate others to pursue a similar profession or educational path.
By 2019, women made up 27% of the STEM workforce in the US. But little to no statistics are available regarding Muslim women in STEM in the U.S. Being a visible Muslim and an immigrant from South Asia, I did not have a figure to look up to. Instead, I had to make mistakes, change majors, take more classes to fulfill the prerequisites, and land on a career that best suited me. Having representation in different career fields will make it easier and more accessible for others to pursue. It makes it even more necessary for me to start a blog to talk about different career routes and excel in them.
My decision to pursue Clinical laboratory Science for my Bachelor’s degree was confirmed the moment I met a recent graduate. It was evident what a difference exposure can make in persuading and enlightening others that you can still play a crucial role in patient care by being a laboratory technologist. Clinical Laboratory Science(CLS) is known as the “behind the scenes” profession with which Physicians can make necessary diagnoses for their patients. CLS professionals work with many kinds of bodily fluids to test and report the findings.
During my CLS program, I remember writing all the formulas, reference ranges, and the different cell types with their names. This sheet of paper spread around the classroom like wildfire. That was the cheat sheet that became a popular resource for all my classmates and myself. My passion was looking for different resources and guides to help understand complex concepts. But I didn’t want it just for me; I wanted to share it. That’s when I realized I needed to create a blog or website so that valuable information reaches other CLS students.
In the US, Wordsology is the only resource blog I have encountered with high yield notes that helped CLS students tremendously. Hence, I believe that it is essential that more resources and study guides be accessible to CLS students.
Being a current public health graduate student, I would like to document my study journey and share resources along the way for others to benefit as well.
While pursuing your career and education, being a mother can also be a very lonely and exhausting journey. As much as we want things to be done quickly and meet deadlines, we suffer at the hands of late nights and infinite breaks to get a single email sent. Balancing work, education, and motherhood is a process where some days you could easily navigate but struggle the next day. The variation in the days and unexpected routes is something I would like to document and share along the way.
If you are a woman in STEM, a mother, a CLS, or public health student, please feel free to reach out. I would love to connect! If you would like to chat more about what I shared, you can email me at ahmadsadaf67@gmail.com.
