We were provided with some set of rules and a set of shapes. Our task was to draw a sketch of a dog out of those shapes and we had to work in a team. All of our team were struggle hard to draw a sketch of a dog. I remember this was our second session of the Amal Academy career preparation fellowship. We were divided into a breakout room of 5–6 colleagues, so we could complete the work in a team. Amal Academy provides a career preparation fellowship of 3 months with the sponsorship of PepsiCo and Stanford University.

I got admission to the Amal academy preparation fellowship. I was so excited about the fellowship. I went to Peshawar to buy a new laptop for the fellowship. When I was going to Peshawar I got a WhatsApp message from our program associate, which was our first interaction with our mentor. The way he started the conversation increased my excitement and then how he interact with us was awesome.

When I look at my laptop, it reminds me of the first week of Amal academy.

In the first week, I met with new people and I got some friends who were with me throughout the whole fellowship. I am so grateful to them for their company. During the fellowship, it was a little hard to manage time because I was handling two fellowships at the same time. I was handling projects from both the fellowships. At that hard time, my feeling was “when this fellowship will end”. But thinking of that time now, it was the most beautiful time of my life. The people I met at the fellowship are the most beautiful, helpful people I have ever met.

Out of the whole fellowship, what I learned are, How to think? how to give priority to “myself”. I learned how to help others and I help most of my fellows who approached me for help.