By Aisha Mohamed
By providing me with an internship experience, Genesys Works is paving me a new path rich with opportunity and is completely restructuring my life in the best way possible. I originally applied for this program because I felt that going to school wasn’t enough for me to make a decision about what I want to focus on in the future. I’ve felt pressured many times to answer the question “What career do you want to pursue?” because I didn’t think I had the needed resources and experience to make that decision.
Genesys Works is impacting me by giving me a clearer understanding of what business/IT really is and what type of work I’m interested in pursuing. Before Genesys Works, I would’ve told you that IT is too technical and uninteresting for me. After Genesys Works, I’ll tell you that I’ve fallen in love with the work I’m doing, and I find interest and value in it. Genesys Works helped me find my passion and made pursuing a degree related to business and technology more of a reality and an option for me.
This experience has also helped me gain confidence in my capabilities and has given me room to learn beneficial life skills. It’s very empowering and encouraging to do such meaningful work at an important company like Cargill; it causes me to not feel limited with my potential and have high ambitions for the future. I feel more confident in expressing my ideas because when I work with my team to brainstorm things, I feel that my input is valued and heard.
Through the advice of my supervisor, coworkers, and program coordinator, I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons that not only relate to work but also, life in general. For example, something that I’ve been struggling a lot with is balancing all the responsibilities I have in school, work, and family. But, with the help of those who support me through Genesys Works, I built a plan for how to manage my time well so that I don’t get overwhelmed with those responsibilities. I like that I can acknowledge those weak points now and work to make them strengths so that it isn’t a problem for me in the future. This experience is really empowering for me because I’m getting more and more confident in who I am and my ideas and skill sets; I am maturing and growing as a person.
Genesys Works shapes the lives of young professionals by creating a difference in the success we can have in the future through providing us the opportunities to gain experience, make mistakes, explore ourselves and our interests, receive unconditional support and care, and ask questions. Genesys Works is meaningful and impactful because for some of us, we may be the only ones in our families right now who have the ability to work from home. Genesys Works creates change for students from underserved communities who otherwise wouldn’t have this opportunity to have college and career support. I will forever be thankful for Genesys Works because it’s an amazing investment that has helped me envision my future.
About the Writer
My name is Aisha Mohamed, and I’m a Somali American. I’m a client experience intern at Cargill and a senior at Ubah Medical Academy. I plan to attend the Carlson School of Management after high school. I’m very interested in the fields of business and technology, and majors like Management Information Systems, marketing, and business analytics are potential areas that I could see myself studying. I also enjoy learning history and politics, so applied economics and global studies are potential majors too. I’m passionate about growth and learning from every experience and situation, so I enjoy reflection and critical thinking. I’m passionate about writing and reading as well, so I’m thankful for this opportunity of having a guest blog! Because of the amazing support Genesys Works provides me, I’m ambitious and have high hopes for what I can accomplish in the future!