One weekend each month, a new group of young people in Montgomery county has an opportunity to interact with top experts to acquire skills necessary to hunt better jobs and network for bright professional careers.
There is no charge for the opportunity and registration for the event is free. The professionals – entrepreneurs, trainers, and authors – do not charge anybody either for their presentations, career counseling or teaching secrets of innovation and success.
“We have high school and college students, we have people from the community — it is a great opportunity to network and develop skills necessary for a successful take off,” Munaal Qureshi, coordinator of the youth committee, said.
Qureshi, a high school student, spoke as a cluster of students keenly listened to speakers, who had volunteered on a mild March Saturday to be at Montgomery County Muslim Foundation – the community organization that hosts the monthly workshops at its office in Gaithersburg.
The workshop last Saturday focused on grooming participants to be exceptional presenters.
As described in an introduction to the workshop, the skill set shows participants how to connect with their audience during interviews, seminars, gatherings in a deeper way so they would hire them.
“One of the joys for me is helping young people communicate in a more powerful way – to teach how to communicate with clarity, how to communicate with other people and inspire — that is the joy of teaching,” Umar Hameed, an expert on optimizing the use of human faculties through a sharpened mindset.
Hameed, who recently authored a book “Unleash Your Crazy, Sexy Brain,” made a power point presentation, explaining how young people could get better results from honing their skills, pitch their ideas like salespeople and be leaders in life.
Significantly, and in consort with demands of the highly competitive era of professional jobs and marketing rivalries, the participants at the workshop had the opportunity to learn how to better tell stories, how to influence the audience and how to use the stage more effectively.
“This was really a helpful session. One of the important things we learnt is to stay engaged and focused,” said Anum Khan, a high school student.
The training at MCMF is the brainchild of Tufail Ahmed and his colleagues leading the foundation. Dr. Ishrat Hussain, a seasoned economist, has been the driving force behind such workshops.
“This is volunteerism in action,” says Tufail Ahmad, a prominent Pakistani-American community leader, who heads the foundation – now a familiar venue for such workshops among many diverse communities of the area.
A key feature of the gatherings is the inclusive coming together of people from diverse communities living in the area – something the MCMF strives for as part of its interfaith work.
For many upcoming students and members of the cocmmunity the workshop turn out be a place to network socially, while also learning to advance careers and business. For example, Saidq Qureshi, father of Munnal Qureshi was the parent coordinator for the workshop while Anum Khan’s parents also attended the event.
“The goal is to create a community of young people from all cultures so they can network, be friends and learn new skills for success,” said Sadiq Qureshi.
