AN INTERVIEW WITH A FINAL YEAR STUDENT, ABDUSSALAM MUAZU
BACKGROUND
Abdussalam Muazu is a final year Economics student at the University of Birmingham. He tells us about his university experience so far, “I’ve learnt how to appreciate other people’s input and how to be more calculative with my decisions”.
WHO ARE YOU?
I am a curious person. I am constantly trying to learn as much as I can about many things, trying to accomplish what little I can in every moment that I am allowed the opportunity to. And I like playing basketball, I’m on the university team.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ROLE MODELS?
My biggest role models apart from the Prophet (PBUH) and my parents for many reasons, are my grandparents. Both of them had accomplished so much, and they built so much with the family that they left behind, that I feel drawn to achieve wither something similar at the very least or do better than they have. They were very humble people from all that I’ve learned aboutthem. Yet the contributions that they made to the society around them didn’t even warrant much attention. No one goes around singing their names in praise but when you go to these communities and you say you’re from this family everybody knows what contributions they’ve made to the community. I really look up to those kinds of things that they’ve done.
WHAT DO YOU STUDY AND WHY DID YOU PICK IT?
I’m studying Economics. I was very lucky though, I had two economics teachers in secondary school and they both had a passion for it. Before then I wanted to study law, I was very opinionated and didn’t hesitate to share them when I was younger, so everyone just went ‘oh he wants to be a lawyer, he’s going to be lawyer’ and I sang the tune along with them. I had never given much thought to what I wanted to do because it was what everybody expected me to do. At a point I had frequent conversations with my friends about the state of the country, the 2015 elections to be precise. That in many respects was a turning point in the direction the country was heading in. It’s become more polarised but there is also a very large push, especially from young people to participate in politics, decision-making, and social activities; at which point it dawned on me, that economics would be the most useful tool to achieve some of the things we spoke about. It really just made sense.
HOW HAS YOUR UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE BEEN SO FAR?
The course I chose is very mathematical and Math isn’t my strong suit, so I struggled a lot to reach the level where its sufficient to do really well in an Economics degree. There were a few failures that had to teach me to sit up, put my head down and get to work. I guess it’s pushed me, so I know I can more often than not do more than I think I can. University has given me that. I’ve met some very incredible people that I’m more than happy to call friends, so, it’s really nice in that regard as well. Not just the friends and the course, you just learn you know, especially if you approach it with an open mind you learn so much. You see in the brochures when they say you will have friends from all over the world, It doesn’t happen to many people but that actually happened to me. I have friends from Bangladesh, Romania, India, Tanzania, US, SA. One of my friends is half Yemeni and half Brazilian. Everyone brings a different experience to university, a different background, and a different lens with which to view things and you come with yours too. If you keep an open mind you learn so much and leave with so much more than you came with. That has definitely happened for me so far and it’s probably going to happen even more so this year.
HOW WILL YOU DESCRIBE LIFE IN BIRMINGHAM?
I found a lot of myself in Birmingham. I guess for many people going to university is the point in life when you get to know who you are, your interests and what you are capable of. I was even very fortunate to have met some incredible people in Birmingham. Some of them inspired me to go out and do stuff I never imagined I could. But like anything, any journey, any experience, it really depends on the person. Anyone can come to Birmingham and they would find something completely different. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of myself left to be found. It’s probably going to be elsewhere. It’s been nice like that in some ways, challenging but interesting. It really has just been enlightening.
DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, IF SO WHAT WAS IT LIKE PARTICIPATING?
Quite a few actually, and I got a lot out of them. Apart from basketball, I have been on two committees for student groups. It was difficult, but I got a lot out of it all. I was on two committees, one which I was very fortunate to lead. That was the African Business Society (ABS). Second was the Islamic society, as a Student Development Officer. Two of which were very demanding roles. The first one, you along with other people were responsible for the success of the society, which was the same for the Islamic society as well. But in this case, if anything were to go wrong it’s easy for anyone to hold me responsible as the person driving the vision, driving the people. Not only that, you are responsible for the growth of your own committee. You’re responsible for helping them develop as individuals, especially if none of them have been on the committee before then, as was the case with the ABS so it was very challenging. You’re allowed to make mistakes, but you have to learn from them quickly and adapt. You want to contribute so much to the people you’re working with, you want to help them grow and you also don’t want to put too much pressure on them. That was a really good experience, I was invited by other societies to give presentations and you can imagine the kind of personal development that comes with that. With the Islamic society, that was a whole different ball game. The sheer volume of work and achievements we had as a committee was incredible, including Discover Islam Week and Charity Week where we engaged with the community on campus to clear some of the misconceptions about the religion and raise thousands of pounds for the crisis in Yemen. As a development officer I was helping people to articulate the things that they’ve learnt, so they can achieve more in their careers. The best part was just how much you could and did contribute to people. It’s very rewarding especially when people just came up to you and say thank you. So, you learn so much and grow so much. Extracurricular activities definitely do stretch you and push you to adapt and learn.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A FINAL YEAR STUDENT?
After what I’ve gotten out of Birmingham so far and from the extracurricular activities, it’s now or never, everything matters now. Your entire degree rests on this one year because if it goes wrong in final year, just forget about it. I mean you can learn all these things online. YouTube has my entire degree, so I’m really just paying for a certificate (Laughs). There is certainly pressure to do well, especially when you know how much effort is being put in to keep you in school. You don’t want to disappoint anyone, and you especially don’t want to disappoint yourself. Everyone has the kind of standards they’ve set for themselves, so that also determines the kind of pressure you are under. So far, it’s been going alright and I look forward to seeing how I handle it all in the end. How useful will all the things that I’ve done these past four years be? I look forward to seeing how it all goes, and what I’ll achieve at the end of it all. So, I guess that’s how it feels.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST CHALLENGING THING FOR YOU AS AN UNDERGRADUATE?
The most challenging thing for me has been staying sane not failing. Like I said earlier I had a lot going on and wasn’t the best mathematician studying a mathematical degree. You can’t use all three years finding your feet, so it’s been challenging to adapt really. Fortunately, I’ve done so and now I am very comfortable with all the course content and really pleased with everything I’ve learned. But it was challenging.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WISH YOU KNEW AS A FRESHER? WHY IS THIS SO?
Yes! when they say first year doesn’t count, you can have fun, it’s a lie!! Your first year determines how your third year is going to be like, unless you are really hard-working, andcan turn a productivity switch on. From everybody that I’ve seen and observed, it sets a trend, so your behaviour and attitude towards studying in first year, goes a long way in determining your entire behaviour towards studying every other year. In fact, first year counts because if you don’t pass first year you don’t progress to second year. I wish I was more deliberate about my attitude towards working that way.