Fatima Aden
Fatima Aden is a freshman studying political science and serves as an at-large representative in the Undergraduate Student Government. She is part of USG’s legislative voting body and an active member of the DEI committee.
“I always wanted to be a family doctor. But then I realized that I’m really involved in advocacy. I was really involved in making a change in the legislative kind of level. … I wanted to get involved in public policy and hopefully become a lawyer. When I saw that USG had internship applications, I was like, ‘You know what, let me just apply and see how it goes. I’ve never been a part of a student government before.’ And, yeah, it’s really, really, really fun.
I’m an at-large representative. Within USG, we have voting members. Basically, any project or resolution that comes across USG in forum, us voting members, we vote it in. We say, ‘Yes, we can go through with that,’ or we can table it for further discussion.
Right now, I’m helping with the Global Gala. The other project that I’m also a part of is the improvement of prayer, meditation and relaxation spaces throughout campus. One of the reasons why this project is on our plate is because many students have noticed that the places where they pray, meditate or relax around campus that’s available to them are just not up to par: they’re not the best looking, they don’t have a lot of materials, they don’t have a lot of resources. You can’t really do what you need to do in there. We’re working on that right now. We got some meetings with admin, and we’re working on fixing that interactive map and including those spaces on there.
I’m planning on going super big for what I wanna do within USG, and I think a big reason for that is because of my first-gen experience. I mentally think, ‘We really need to do it ten times harder.’ We don’t have parents at home where we can just be, like, ‘Hey, what do you think I should do in XYZ experience?’ I think my roles within USG and how far I wanna go is definitely influenced because I’m a first-gen. Mentally, I want to make my parents proud, and I’m like, ‘If I want to do this, I need to go as hard as I can.’
I think all first-gen students definitely have some type of shared experience, and although it’s hard living up to the expectations set by first-gen parents, it’s worth it in the end. I’m so grateful for what my parents have done.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview by Ben Wagner