On Friday, April 26, MCC hosted a career panel for youths to learn about different careers and receive advice, tips, and resources to help them plan their future. We were privileged to have professionals from various careers generously share their experiences and insights, illuminating what living one’s faith in the workplace means. We extend our gratitude to Sr. Saba Usmani for facilitating this panel.
Below is the bio of the panelists: Br. Belal Mogaddedi is a first-generation Afghan American working as a firefighter for the City and County of San Francisco. In addition to being the founder of the organization Muslim First Responders, he co-founded The 5ive Pillars, which aids resettlement of incoming new refugees. He also serves his skills and passion as the Red Cross Program Manager for the Disaster Action Team (DAT) and Disaster Health Services (DHS) Team under the umbrella of Alameda County. ​As Program Manager at The 5ive Pillars Organization, he oversees teams ready to respond to local emergencies 24/7, from offering emotional support to immediate needs for shelter/supplies and connecting to long-term recovery services. When he’s not busy saving lives, he spends time in the community volunteering with organizations such as Afghan-American Muslim Outreach and the Afghan Coalition and serving as a role model for the Sports Program for at-risk youth. ​He lives and leads a life of service to others with a heart that has no end when helping out the community. Sr. Jessica Ozalp is a lawyer with over ten years of experience in education and legislative practice in public agencies and private law firms.  She is also a former educator and will share how a law degree can be used for the public good in service of community values. Sr. Santi Chrisanti has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering and over 15 years of progressive experience. She leads a team of materials/chemists and data scientists in one of the largest multinational biotech companies. Her team is developing next-generation sequencing technology and having fun doing it. Sr. Saba Usmani is a digital marketing analytics leader with over ten years of experience in marketing strategies, executing experimentation, data science, and customer insights in the financial and retail industries. With a computer science and management science education, she transitioned from a career in software development to analytics. She helps business teams utilize prediction models and make data-driven decisions. Br. Shuaib Khwaja has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from India. With 26 years of experience in engineering, he has worked on various software products on desktop, mobile, and cloud platforms. Currently, he works at Adobe as a software architect, and his team works on backend cloud services to support collaboration and Generative AI on Adobe Creative products.