Description of the video:

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(upbeat music)

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-: So my name is Khadijah Sulail,

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and I am environmental engineering.

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I'm sitting here right now.

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And my position is front desk assistant

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at IEBO international office.

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I have enjoyed helping people a lot,

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and also knowing..,

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about different ethnicities,

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and culture

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and nationalities,

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because, it is

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about international students, so

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I have worked with

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a lot of students,

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in different platform.

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So, I have become a good communicator,

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and I think,

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a good communicator will help me in the future

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as an engineer,

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because I'm gonna communicate with a lot of people

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and

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also with different background as well.

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I think my greatest accomplishment is

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educating myself about different cultures

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and different backgrounds,

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and also learning how to communicate with people,

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and how to self-control myself,

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and how to time,

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how to manage my time.

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-: So my name is Brandalynn White.

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I use (indistinct) as pronouns,

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and I'm the assistant director of client services

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at the office of international affairs site.

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One of the,

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I think most valuable traits

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that Khadija brings to the office right now is

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her willingness to be flexible, and

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understands that the needs of our students are changing

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rapidly and constantly in this environment.

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Khadija came on board, about two months before

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we closed for COVID.

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And so we got through the very basics of training

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before we moved into a world where

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nobody really had solid ground underneath our feet.

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And she's just been up to the task the whole time.

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And, you know, here we are almost at a year later

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and it's still, you know

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present every day that

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she's bringing that flexibility

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and that knowledge of what our students

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are really going through, to our work.

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And that it has to be,

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more and more student cetric,

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and how we think about client services

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and how we enact those practices with our offices.

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-: So, I am international student,

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and once I saw this position,

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I feel this is the right position for me,

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so I've left for like

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and because

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I am international student makes look like

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this is gonna be (indistinct)

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and difficult position

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because I almost know everything

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about international students.

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-: One of the things that stood out about Khadija,

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when we were hiring,

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was her commitment to the international student community

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here at IEPY.

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She,

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clearly based, you know on her resume and in her interview,

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she wasn't just par.., you know,

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partaking campus life without

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self guidance or anything like that, she

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had taken risks, had taken the initiative to join,

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you know, different organizations,

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leadership and research opportunities within her school.

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It was clear that she was a student who

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wanted to make the most out of her experience

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here at IEPY, and

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I, you know,

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was hoping that we can be part of that story for her.

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I think one of the ways that

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Khadija exceeded the expectations

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for the front desk assistant position,

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is that

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she engages so critically and thoughtfully

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with the decisions that we make.

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So when we've been changing policies in COVID,

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or trying to find new solutions

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and to new and old problems

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that she is always willing to contribute and

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ask, you know really good and critical questions

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in ways that push me to, you know think about some of the

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things that I bring to my position with the office,

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as well as,

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just how we can be

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how we can be more student focused in this time.

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Khadija shows up every day, ready to engage

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ready to make us a better place

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for our students to interact with,

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for her coworkers to understand

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the different cultural lenses that she brings to the office

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and always ready to contribute.

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-: I feel like I am more engaging

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and (indistinct) right now

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and I feel like I am already lifted to (indistinct)

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-: One of the things that Khadija has taught me

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about being a supervisor,

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particularly through COVID is,

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to make sure to ask, you know,

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be open as a manager to

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really receive the opinions and

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the needs of my staff as student workers

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and

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that the time that you invest in asking questions

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and engaging with student employees,

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that it's well spent,

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that the value is definitely there, whether that's

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you know, following up with them

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on an individual personal level

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and making sure there's they're okay

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to asking questions that

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contribute to policy changes

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or other practices,

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time spent in discussion and

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eliciting feedback from student employees is valuable.

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-: I didn't need to call the international office to ask

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for any advice because I am the one.

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(Khadija laughing)