Feature Student: Sanah Ahmed

Hi! My name is Sanah Ahmed and I am a sophomore majoring in Health Policy and Management, with a minor in Business Administration. I’m from Charlotte but most of my family lives in Georgia, so Atlanta is like my second home (after Chapel Hill, of course!). In my free time, I enjoy running, listening to all kinds of music, and spending time with family. My on campus involvement includes being a Bonner Leader through the Campus Y and an NC Fellow! Both programs are cohort-based, and I feel so lucky to have been able to find such wonderful community niches on campus.  Off campus, I volunteer with Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate to help promote academic mentorship and engagement amongst CHCCS students through tutorial and program support. Growing up with family has made me realize how much I love working with kids, and I feel this emboldened by my work with Blue Ribbon!

With Blue Ribbon as my community partner for Bonner, I’ve worked on the grantwriting side and pitched twice to receive grants towards various within Blue Ribbon’s Youth Leadership Institute. I applied to this class because I wanted to be on the other side of the grant-writing process: the gratifying and fulfilling experience of giving back to an organization that gives to its community. I’ve been able to glean so many things about philanthropy from a variety of guest speakers and readings, as well through current event topics we discuss in class about the functioning of nonprofits in various sectors of public service.  My role in class has been on the community outreach committee, where I emailed our RFP to various organizations that aligned with the mission of IMPACT NC, as well as made folders to share the received application materials with our class. Additionally, I will facilitate communicating our questions with organizations, as well as their questions for us, throughout the grant reviewing process. A lot of our grant-reviewing process has been done via Google Drive, and it is really cool to see how technology plays a fundamental role in our class in communicating with in the community and with one another!  I am excited to see how our reviewing process will unfold in the final weeks of class as we hone in on the applications we will fund.