SJSU iSchool Virtual Convocation

GRADUATE PROFILE BACK TO GRADUATE PROFILES

Mahasin Jullanar Abuwi Aleem

CONNECTIONS

GUEST BOOK

Virginia Tucker: Congratulations, Mahasin! Wishing you all the best!

Debbie Faires: Mahasin--congratulations! It was fantastic to work when you were a peer mentor. I hope to come to the library in Oakland and meet you one day.

Hadiya Evans: Congrats! Cheers to being done! I hope to see you around in library land.

Rebekah Randle: Congrats!

Cyndi Park: Congrats Mahasin! I enjoyed being a peer mentor with you. I wish you all the best as you begin your career. :)

Ramon Calhoun: Congratulations Mahasin. I wish you the best of luck as a librarian at OPL. I'll have to come visit one of these days.

Mahasin Jullanar Abuwi Aleem

The degree of

Master of Library and Information Science

Virtual Convocation
2018

PROFILE

Current residence: Oakland, CA, US

I wanted to earn a masters degree because:

I feel a tremendous debt to my ancestors who were forbidden the right to an education. I wanted to honor their struggles. I always knew that a bachelor's degree wasn't the end of my formal education. I am glad that I decided to get my MLIS and become a public children's librarian.

While earning my degree, my greatest supporters were:

my husband, Harith; my three children, Aadam, Isa, and Aasiya; my father, Omar; and my uncle Bill. My mother didn't live to see me enter graduate school, but she always believed in me and I carried her confidence in me along the way. My many wonderful coworkers at the Oakland Public Library gave me valuable advice and were great resources for many assignments! I am also indebted to many supportive friends. Precious, Shahidah, Khaliya, Maureen, and Janie, I could not have done this without you! I had some really wonderful professors who very encouraging, especially Penny Peck, Tiffany Curtin, Shelly Buchanan, Virginia Tucker, Debbie Faires, Cindy Runnels, and Debbie Hansen. Thank you!

While in the program, I met classmates from:

other parts of California and from across the United States.

What I liked best about online learning was:

the flexibility!

What I enjoyed most about my experience at the SJSU School of Information was:

my experience as a peer mentor with Debbie Faires and Cindy Runnels. They are so very supportive and encouraging. I found my tribe of fellow students through that experience. I also enjoyed pursing independent historical research on the history of African American librarians under the gudiance of Debbie Hansen. While the eportfolio experience was exhausting and stressful, I was so proud of myself and glad for the process at the end of it!

I plan to use my degree to:

promote resources to families and youth and to be an advocate for all members of the community that I serve, especially the historically marginalized.

Now that I have completed the program, I'm most looking forward to:

not being on the computer so much! I also look forward to sleeping more and spending more time on the weekends with my family.