FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — When Aarish Raza graduates, it will likely be after the toughest semester of his life — taking eight lessons whereas working three jobs and making ready for his nursing certification exams and his future as a nurse. However he has no regrets.
“I’ve discovered quite a bit from my failures and errors in that I perceive the significance of time administration, self-cultivation and dedication,” he stated. “Nothing in life is simple, and I need to work arduous if I need to achieve success.”
Raza, a nursing main who’s the Distinguished Senior for Northern Arizona College’s School of Well being and Human Companies, visited NAU from his dwelling in Chinle. He instantly cherished the campus and the folks he met.
Rising up in Chinle
His journey to Arizona, nevertheless, was a bit longer. Raza’s household is from Pakistan, and he was born there. His household relocated 1000’s of miles to the Navajo Nation for his father’s job as a trainer, and he grew up in Chinle.
“I’ve actually cherished my expertise rising up on the reservation,” he stated. “It was a considerably completely different tradition from my very own, but we shared plenty of the identical values. My American expertise has been fully distinctive in comparison with others, and I really feel like that offers me a very completely different outlook on what it means to be an American.”
His time at NAU included analysis as effectively. When he was a freshman, Raza signed up for The Consider Ink, a seminar that allowed him to analysis tattoos and the varied meanings they’ve held in numerous cultures and eras. His class examined historical and Indigenous tattoos, their cultural influences and their symbolism in city areas. Even jail tattoos have been on the syllabus. He offered his analysis at that 12 months’s First 12 months Seminar Analysis Symposium.
“The most important factor I discovered was that everybody expresses themselves otherwise, and tattoos are one type of expression,” he stated. “Furthermore, there are extra to tattoos than meets the attention, as they’ll relate to non-public experiences and even faith. I do know there’s a little bit of taboo surrounding tattoos, however I really feel like studying about them fully dispelled it for me.”
As his NAU profession progressed, he moved into mentoring, serving to a struggling anthropology pupil perceive the course materials, and was a educating assistant for a few nursing programs. These experiences have helped him make associates and change into a greater trainer and chief whereas additionally getting a greater understanding of the fabric himself.
These experiences additionally meant common interactions with college members and directors, notably nursing professor Daybreak Rivas, who is also the affiliate director of NAU’s nursing program. She met Raza greater than two years in the past at a brand new pupil orientation and have become his mentor, and he recurrently talked to her about his profession plans. She’s gotten to know him extra by his educating assistantship.
“Aarish would come to our nursing administration workplace every day to get a key to an empty workplace so he may go pray,” she stated. “I seemed ahead to seeing him every single day as a result of he was all the time so nice and smiling.”
Serving to to teach others has lengthy been a ardour of Raza’s, even in much less conventional methods; he’s the graphic designer and video editor of PreMath, a YouTube channel of tutorial math movies which have thousands and thousands of views.
He’s additionally spent his NAU time working and volunteering in well being care, making ready for his profession as a nurse. He has labored at Flagstaff Medical Middle as a affected person care technician, volunteered within the emergency division at FMC and acquired his licensed nursing assistant license in 2019.
After commencement, Raza will work at FMC as a nurse.
Info supplied by NAU
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