#fasapd

Introduction

Hi. My name is Zainab Ahmad (zay-nub eh-med), and I am a fiend for boba. That’s what everyone says, though, right? Yes, but dare I even call myself a connoisseur, I have the credentials to prove it:

I worked at CoCo in my junior and senior years of high school (yes, the one on north campus)

I worked at Sharetea my freshman year of college

I had 200 boba drinks in 2021 (I counted)

I won free boba for a year from Palgong

I have a private story (called bobruh 🧋) where I rate boba every time I get it

I absolutely demolished PASS in the boba drinking competition at Rice Bowl ‘23 (we still lost overall ʕ ´•̥̥̥ ᴥ•̥̥̥`ʔ )

POV: you’re beating PASS @ the boba drinking section of the eating comp @ Rice Bowl ‘23

Thus, you can clearly see I have a(n) mild obsession. Thank God I don’t have diabetes!

Wait, what does any of this have to with FASA? Actually, for my testimonial, I will be comparing my experiences regarding FASA to boba drinks. Let’s get into it.

Taro milk tea ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Respectfully, taro milk tea is the most basic boba drink. It’s by no means bad if taro is your favorite, but it does mean your taste is basic (and that it completely ok ദ്ദിʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ). We all start somewhere on our boba journey, and more often than not it’s with taro (myself included)! How could this possibly intertwine with my FASA origin story?? You guessed it– like so many other FASA members, I went to one FASA event in freshman year and dipped until sophomore year.

Let’s run it back to winter 2021 of my freshman year– technically the first FASA event I went to was mass meeting. But guess what! I attended on Zoom and did not really engage with anything!

So, the first FASA event I truly attended was FAM/lin reveal. I honestly don’t know what compelled me to fill out the form to join a FAM, but I do recall going to Rackham, sitting at a table watching the lin reveals (at this point I did not know what a lineage was so I did not opt to be in one), then the FAM reveals began and I was on the edge of my seat. It was down to me either being placed in H.A.M. or $WAG and truthfully I was hoping for $WAG just because the possibility of the Muslim girl being in H.A.M. would be… interesting (for context, Muslims do not eat pork). Then lo and behold I was placed in $WAG ฅʕ⭑ﻌ⭑ʔฅ I thought it was cute how my new FAM members and I all sat together in a circle & introduced ourselves, and I left that event feeling a little bit closer to FASA.

Taken after my first real FASA event! Idk why I called it a meeting tho!

Then I fell off the face of the Earth in regards to FASA events & didn’t go to anything until the fall mass meeting of my sophomore year (lol but nobody’s laughing)  ₊ ⊹ʕ – ᴥ – ʔ

Thai milk tea ʕづ๑•ᴥ•๑ʔづ♡

By thai milk I specifically mean Ding Tea’s thai milk tea  – my favorite milk tea! But only the version prior to Winter ‘24 (because they changed the recipe this semester ʕ ꆤ ᴥ ꆤʔ). Anyways, as I became more active in FASA as a general member in my sophomore year, I had so much fun! I finally got sorted into a lineage in Fall ‘22 (darago!) & enjoyed debriefing with people that I probably would have never spoken to if it weren’t for FASA.

Darago @ PCN Centennial ୧ʕ•̀ᴥ•́ʔ୨

I never considered myself a dancer (& still don’t tbh) but I learned tinikling for the first time, sucked at it, but eventually danced to Industry Baby at PCN

+ learned to dance like an elegant lady through performing pag-apir at both PCN & Battle

Chins up for pag-apir!

+ danced like a duck by doing itik-itik for Kalayaan.

I wanted to dip my toes into being more integrated with FASA than just being a general member & a performer, so I joined the yearbook committee! I always thought graphic design was fun, & I enjoyed the creative liberties the yearbook gals & I took to make last year’s yearbook <3

I designed the fit check page (right) ᵔᴥᵔ

I enjoyed the FASA community so much that I wanted to contribute to it more as a board member. Thus, I ended up running for both S’Advocacy & PD because I thought my prior experiences/skills aligned well with both roles (fun fact: I was the only applicant who ran for two positions last year). As you can see, I became the 2023 - 2024 Professional Development Chair, & I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

PD lin!

Wintermelon milk tea ⍝ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ⍝

I feel like not many people have gotten into wintermelon milk tea, but it’s really good and underrated. I would down it so fast when I worked at Sharetea. So good. But, as we all know, too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. Woah, this seems like it’s about to go downhill. Let me explain.

Transitioning into when I became a full-fledged boardie & started being one of the people behind the scenes of the ever-loved FASA events, I learned a lot about myself as a leader & about my personal characteristics. A lot of time goes into being a boardie, & being on board made me get my planning skills down to a T– despite me thinking they were already good. I experienced a lot of ups & downs as a boardie, & I utilized my experiences as learning opportunities. I currently am on two other boards (shoutout NOiR & IMSA lol), but I have never seen on organization value community as much as FASA does, & I think that’s something to be treasured.

Board @ senior farewell fresh outta the womb for one of our first events together

As I write this in my final month as your Professional Development chair, I feel ready to pass the baton off to the next. Being a FASA boardie has definitely been a good thing, but I have reached a point where I believe our organization could benefit from someone with a fresh perspective. Time for something new. I have had the great pleasure of being PD chair, & I hope that our members only continue professionally developing!

Hands up, time’s over!

Kita kits,