Growing up in Bahrain, Fatema Janahi, E’22, MS’22, was always interested in environmental sustainability. Inspired by dialogues on reforming economies to be less dependent on the gas and oil industry, Janahi believed she would pursue environmental science in higher education—therefore it was a surprise when she joined her after-school robotics program. Despite not being enrolled in her high school’s sole computer science class, Janahi recalls being drawn in by the Lego Mindstorm sets available to students in the lab. “It was more [of a] curiosity to begin with [as] you did not need to have [coding] knowledge,” explains Janahi. This accessibility for beginners led Janahi to attend her first local recycling-themed competition—where she qualified for an international round—and witnessed how her new hobby intersected with her primary passion.
This would not be the last time that Janahi’s curiosity and ambition would cause her to stray from an expected path. Despite not having any family who had studied abroad before, she chose to pursue her higher education over 6,000 miles away from home at Northeastern, without ever visiting Boston. She first heard about Northeastern when some representatives from the university visited her high school. After seeing photos of the Boston campus, she believed it resembled the colleges she saw in popular films growing up and instinctively knew Northeastern would be the ideal school for her.
During her first semester at Northeastern, Janahi realized she did not see herself pursuing a career in a lab environment, so she switched her major from environmental science to environmental engineering. While completing her core engineering requirements, she was enrolled in a class that included a robotics project. “I really liked the creativity that came with engineering…and I actually had to learn coding properly [which] was fun. I liked to see what I was doing move around.” Reconnecting with an abandoned area of interest caused her to make her final degree change by majoring in computer engineering. Additionally, she took advantage of a BS/MS program—today called PlusOne Program—that incorporated a master’s degree in engineering management, satisfying a collaborative aspect that was missing in her higher-level computer engineering courses.
From living in a shared space for the first time in Hastings Hall to navigating a new city, Janahi admits that she dealt with culture shock. To mitigate this, it was vital for her to find a sense of community on campus. She joined Northeastern’s Arab Student Association, which she later became president of, and the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship, colloquially known as WISE. In WISE, she spent one semester in the WeBuild cohort. “I had an idea for a digital agency because I love marketing, and I wanted to build a platform for small businesses. Instead of people trying to find them on Instagram, I built a directory where businesses could sign up and…list their business” in a centralized place.
After she graduated from Northeastern, Janahi had to hit pause on her venture to focus on her first post-graduate role at Google. However, recently, she rebranded it under a new name, Palm, with her Bahrain-based business partner. Today, Janahi explains that Palm is an “e-commerce website” where designers in the Middle East and North African region can sell fashion apparel with an emphasis on community building “to empower people to work together.” The benefits of having these businesses collaborate are that they “get exposure from each other’s audiences,” and consumers can buy unique clothing pieces. Janahi’s innovative venture that gives back to her community back home earned her recognition for a 2024 Women Who Empower Innovator Award.
With two Northeastern degrees and a business certificate via the Galante Engineering Business Program, Janahi began a new chapter in New York City as a technical program manager with Google’s cybersecurity team. She believes that her two co-op experiences, one as an embedded software engineer at Emphysys—a company that develops technology for the medical, life science, and industrial equipment industries—and another as a software engineer at Motorola, enabled her to empathize and communicate with her team of engineers. “Having been a software engineer, I understand how [engineers] see things and I can relate to what [they] go through. A lot of project management is change management [and seeing] what works for your team.”
Janahi plans to continue her role with Google and invest in Palm for the foreseeable future. She shares that she has enjoyed her unique experiences with the tech giant. From visiting the famed Google headquarters to traveling around the world, Fatema has come a long way from the young curious student in Bahrain. As to how she juggles her jam-packed schedule? Fatema can draw on the lessons she learned from a mentor she connected with through WISE. She reflects that Tracy Fink, a proponent of mindfulness and fellow Northeastern alumna, came into her life at the right time. “She would help center me when I needed it [as well as getting] me into really good habits like journaling and just taking a breath,” says Fatema. Equipped with all these foundational tools from Northeastern, Janahi is set to continue being a trailblazer in any industry she touches.
I wanted to build a platform and a community for [small business owners] back home, where a lot of them were on Instagram trying to get visibility…[I] built a central place to find businesses in Bahrain, whether it was to find traditional clothing or food spots.
Fatema Janahi, E’22, MS’22
You may have seen their viral blush star in countless TikTok makeup tutorials, heard about their recent celebrity-studded benefit to raise money for mental health resources, or know the beauty brand’s founder, actress and singer Selena Gomez. As a social media and content assistant manager, Louise Dechelle, AMD’18, understands the gravity of working at Rare. “The messaging behind the brand…being able to express your individuality and valuing mental health…it’s super empowering to be a part of that revolution and the next generation of beauty lovers because we’re not just posing and being pretty. It’s really about playing with makeup, making it your own, and loving the way you are. Love your rare, as our latest campaign says.”
Growing up in France, Dechelle chose to specialize in language and literature for her international baccalaureate degree, where she studied English, Spanish, and Italian. When she learned about Northeastern at a college fair in Paris, the university’s global emphasis and co-op program immediately appealed to her. “[The co-op program] was super important to me because I know that’s how you build relations.”
Entering Northeastern with dreams of working for National Geographic, Dechelle believed that majoring in journalism would best position her to obtain a co-op at the coveted company. After realizing that many of her journalism courses centered around American sports and politics—which she wasn’t too familiar with—Dechelle praises her advisors for accommodating her evolving interests by allowing her to design her degree. “I knew what kind of companies I wanted to work with, but I didn’t know how to get there. [My advisors] made it easy for me to create my degree…I was able to mix video with communications and digital art—and this whole social media world was still developing…I changed [my major] three times, but I was able to tick the boxes and still finish in five years.”
Despite all the changes to her undergraduate degree, Dechelle remained in the College of Arts, Media and Design. The small class sizes allowed her to take artistic risks with her classmates and have valuable one-on-one time with her professors. She gives kudos to a handful of influential professors—including David Thames, Mira Cantor, Jamal Thorne, and John Kane—for encouraging her to trust her creative abilities and their expertise being constant sources of inspiration for Dechelle.
Moreover, in one of her CAMD classes, Northeastern professor Michelle Carr organized a trip to Toth+Co, an advertising agency in Boston’s South End neighborhood. Dechelle, who recalls being impressed by the agency’s presentation, was ecstatic when her professor informed her that the connections she met at the office admired her inquisitiveness and offered her a co-op position. Looking back at that time, Dechelle says the energy of that environment was perfect for her first co-op experience. She vividly remembers her and the creative team exchanging their most outside-of-the-box ideas with Toth+Co’s CEO in anticipation of pitching to renowned companies like Lululemon or Coca-Cola. When she returned to Northeastern after this exciting experience, she had a newfound clarity to invest her creativity in a social media advertising career.
For her second co-op, Dechelle lived out her dream of working at National Geographic Learning, where she focused on “assets for English second language speakers” while building “digital interfaces for apps” and proofreading content from a collaboration with Ted Talk. Reflecting on her co-op experiences, Dechelle believes that gaining perspective from a startup and a Fortune 500 company equipped her with a strong foundation in her post-graduate career journey, which began with a digital production freelancing position at National Geographic.
Further, Dechelle embraced the chance to study abroad in New Zealand, a program she envisioned taking part in when a representative from Northeastern told her about the university’s global opportunities years prior. Taking courses on art conservation, she is grateful for an eye-opening field trip to an Indigenous town where she witnessed how one community preserves their culture in their everyday lives through their meal preparations and dances. Aside from that, exploring the country’s natural beauty was one of her highlights. “I think that’s why I moved to California. I could experience New Zealand again with the national parks,” Dechelle adds with a laugh.
Her career at Rare is the other reason she planted her roots in California. As a member of the company’s marketing team, Dechelle aims to generate excitement for product reveals with posts on their social channels. Apart from massive launches that require the entire team’s participation, Dechelle shares that her manager “empowers” each team member by delegating different makeup items to them. When this occurs Dechelle’s tasks include “brainstorming the content for the product on all of our social channels, capturing the content, helping the community [in real life] events, gathering all the assets, briefing the creators for [user-generated content] campaigns…[and] just scouring social, finding ideas.” In her day-to-day life, she curates weekly newsletters for her team, a task she carried over from her time at an influencer marketing company, that features a rundown of new products, trends on social media, and an analysis of the creator market.
Another aspect Dechelle loves about her team at Rare is how it resembles her favorite aspect of her time at CAMD. Being in a “women-fueled environment,” reminds her of the intimate “classes where you can share ideas” with your peers and grow from their feedback. Much like the brand’s mission, Dechelle adds that they are all aligned under the company-wide goal of creating content that “reflects the values that are inclusive [and] authentic.”
As she continues to grow in her role, Dechelle hopes to be a leader who motivates others to find inspiration on social media while leading imaginative brainstorms with her co-workers. For now, Dechelle teases that 2025 already looks like an exciting year for Rare. As the lovers of the beauty company impatiently count down the hours until the new year, they can bet that with the creative insights from Dechelle, the social promotion for Rare will be flawless.
“[At Rare], I continue to brainstorm and be creative. That is what I loved about being at Northeastern in those small classes. We would always have showcases of our work, and we were able to critique ourselves and learn from that.
Louise Dechelle, AMD’18
Meet Jae Williams, EdD’22! Williams, who has a doctorate in education from Northeastern and currently serves as executive in residence for the Business of Creative Enterprises program at Emerson College, has ambitions to take an innovative approach to teaching and making education inclusive for all. Learn more about his award-winning doctoral thesis, teaching success stories, and inspirational podcast Dr. Jae’s Office Hours that highlights the intersection of business, creativity, and social justice.
Office Hours Podcast
https://www.drjaewilliams.com/podcast
Meet George Blitch, SSH’01! George captures Northeastern’s entrepreneurial spirit—between starting his own publishing company to document Indigenous Elders, his own cartography company, and his own podcast, George has done it all. Learn more about how George’s Northeastern experience inspired him to forge his own paths in life.
View the Transcript here
Meet Howie Newman, S’73! After making his musical debut in 1973 at Northeastern, Howie spent the majority of his career as a professional baseball writer before transitioning to full-time musician. These days, you can find Howie touring around the country and playing his light-hearted at community centers, libraries, and for adults with developmental disabilities.
Website
View the transcript here
Northeastern Alumna Antonia Sousa showcases the content creation skills she developed during her co-ops and College of Arts, Media and Design courses at NBCUniversal.
By Brianna Mitchell
“Working in late night has been really exciting because I’m editing clips that go on social that very same day…it’s the most rewarding thing because you’re instantly seeing how that’s performing,” says Antonia Sousa, AMD’23. One of her favorite projects she recently worked on was editing “Kevin Hart and Seth Meyers Go Day Drinking,” an installment of a popular interview series on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” which amassed over a million views on YouTube.
Whether you are looking at metrics or the occasional re-post by Kevin Hart, there is no doubt that Sousa’s talent resonates with the talk show’s audience. Sousa, a native of Peru, is currently participating in NBCUniversal’s Page Program, a competitive application-based cohort of young professionals who receive exposure to different areas of the media conglomerate. After completing her first two rotations of corporate communications with Telemundo and collaborating with the social media team on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” she is currently embarking on her final assignment with the video team on “The Today Show.” Additionally, she will assist the “Saturday Night Live” social media team by cutting and captioning videos.
On the outside, Sousa’s academic and career trajectory may seem kismet. Especially since Sousa’s father attended Northeastern and credits NBC programs like “Saturday Night Live” and “Seinfeld” for teaching him English. However, Sousa admits that her journey to 30 Rock was riddled with uncertainty.
After spending two years at a specialized art school in the Savannah, Georgia, Sousa transferred to Northeastern, believing she could thrive in an environment that would narrow down her academic direction. In her two years at Northeastern, Sousa acted on that belief by majoring in journalism and getting involved on campus. With intent to “contribute to something apart from [her classes]” she joined the Huntington News, Avenue Magazine, and became a CAMD Ambassador.
Sousa credits these experiences with more than just professional development—they laid the foundation for personal growth. For example, navigating challenges like losing a re-election bid for a social media position at Huntington News made a profound impact on her. She notes that dealing with rejection taught her “to not let it sway me in the wrong direction” and to approach “opportunities with an open mind [while] never feeling entitled to anything.”
Sousa took those lessons to heart and carried that perspective with her to two influential work opportunities—a co-op at Wayfair and an internship with Universal Music Group. Sousa recalls on her first day at Universal Music Group, the company switched her from the marketing team to the audience development department. Despite her initial hesitation to take on a data-driven role, Sousa reports that “I ended up loving it and seeing a completely different side to social and creative spaces…[this] is also why I am enjoying the Page Program as much as I am because it is such an unexpected environment that you need to be able to adjust to new things.”
Looking back at those two experiences, she adds that it “gave me the confidence I needed” and provided “clarity in terms of what I wanted out of a work environment.” Although her second internship is where her initial interest in the entertainment business began, she prefers the hands-on role she experienced during her creative production and video marketing co-op at Wayfair.
“Media is a really exciting medium to be in,” reflects Sousa. As much as she is interested in continuing her career in television, she adds that she is open to other sectors. “It’s more so about the work that you do and the impact you are leaving as opposed to the industry that you are in,” she says.
When she’s not staffing live-studio audiences and giving public tours of NBC studios, Sousa is focused on growing her professional network and applying her journalistic skills from Northeastern at “The Today Show.” Looking ahead, Sousa can join the Page Program’s graduate period, an optional term where the program supports participants’ journey to securing an internal or external full-time role. Whether she chooses to take advantage of that option, there is no doubt that Sousa’s expertise will shine bright in any future role she takes on.
I’ve always been somewhat introverted, and I never wanted that to get in the way of any opportunities because I care a lot about my professional success. So, taking the risk of going into these extracurriculars throughout college…you are learning how to collaborate in a really efficient way.
Antonia Sousa, AMD’23
Meet Frank Green, SSH’92! After spending time working for an Irish senator during his time at Northeastern, Frank had a takeaway that would impact the rest of his career—the world is a big place with many different perspectives. Learn about Frank’s Northeastern and co-op experiences, his interest in the recruiting process, and why he is excited about the global envoy program.
View the Transcript Here
Double Husky Ifteda Ahmed-Syed’s Northeastern journey helped her find her dream job as a software engineer at The Walt Disney Company.
By Brianna Mitchell
“I like to joke that I was raised by films…so it was a childhood dream to at least be adjacent to storytelling and entertainment,” says Ifteda Ahmed-Syed, Khoury’20, MS’23. The Double Husky is currently in her third year working as a software engineer for The Walt Disney Company, a reality that was once a dream.
It makes sense that Ahmed-Syed’s favorite Disney movie is “Tangled,” a story that centers around an optimistic and empathetic heroine pursuing her dreams—as is reflected in this alumna. However, achieving her coveted professional career at Disney was never linear and, at times, challenged by self-doubt.
“I have always, unapologetically, carried my identity with me wherever I go,” shares Ahmed-Syed. Being the eldest daughter of an immigrant household, she was influenced to double major in computer science and business, believing that this would best position her to get a practical career. In her second year at Northeastern, the Khoury College of Computer Sciences selected her to attend the Grace Hopper Conference, the world’s largest annual technology event designed for women and non-binary individuals to career-build by meeting with sponsors from leading companies, where she networked with Disney representatives for the first time. “It was my first real exposure to the function of technology within the company. But even then, I underestimated myself to an extent. [However], I think things worked out in a magical way,” recalls Ahmed-Syed.
In the meantime, Ahmed-Syed took full advantage of the opportunities and resources provided by Northeastern. She completed two formative software developer co-ops at Voya Financial. Being drawn to the company to explore “the confluence of tech and finance,” she notes that, “learning how to navigate uncharted territory, communicate effectively, and also absorb knowledge outside of a classroom setting” are among the most significant takeaways she had from her experiential learning experience and still try to apply to her career today.
Conversely, while she was on campus, the connections she formed with her peers were equally valuable. Specifically, a teaching assistant in a computer science fundamentals course introduced her to HackBeanpot, a nonprofit hackathon designed for young computer programmers in the Boston area. In her three-year involvement with the organization, Ahmed-Syed’s last year was the most impactful. In 2020, while most of the world was shutting down to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Ahmed-Syed was determined to find ways to serve her community. Instead of accepting the pretense that HackBeanpot may be any less well-attended than in previous years due to the pandemic, Ahmed-Syed and the outreach team worked tirelessly to successfully translate the event online and drew interest from participants outside of Massachusetts.
In a true full-circle moment, before her last fall semester in 2020, Ahmed-Syed was contacted by Disney recruiters, who had her information from the Grace Hopper Conference’s database, urging her to apply to The Walt Disney Company. That fall, soon after she submitted her application, she got the offer to move down to Orlando in June of 2021.
Ifteda gave a temporary goodbye to her close-knit family and left her New England roots for sunny Florida to start her first role with Disney Experiences as an associate software engineer. Some of her main responsibilities in her first role with the company included working with analysts to determine “what features would benefit schedulers and cast members in Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort. Then our analysts turn those into user acceptance criteria and my job [was] to design and implement systems or features that satisfy those criteria.”
After three years and a promotion to software engineer II, she transferred to Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology. This transition resulted in a move home to Connecticut, where her family and ESPN headquarters are located. Now, she works primarily on Hulu, and one of her team’s main projects is to improve systems that help consumers of the streaming platform use the search function and receive suggestions for media. Ifteda credits her decision to enroll in Northeastern’s online master’s of computer science program with giving her more confidence to navigate challenging assignments and the dreaded first step in the project as an engineer. “I was really looking to expand my repertoire but do it in a way that ensures that my understanding was concrete…so that when I reach for that tool in the future, I’m reaching for something solid that can get me through that first step.”
Today, one of the most meaningful parts of her job is how, despite the company’s size, there are opportunities to connect with others while celebrating collective interests and affiliations. Radiating joy, she explains, “It’s heartwarming to have a space where I can celebrate certain aspects of my identity.” This includes celebrating Ramadan with co-workers at Walt Disney World and meeting the writing partners behind Christina Lauren as part of the women’s book club within the company. Additionally, she gets to share the magic that she helps create with the people she loves the most by taking her family to Walt Disney World.
Learn more about Ifteda and her work below:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifteda/
Build For Black Lives Website: buildforblacklives.com
I knew that gaining a foundational understanding of a wide range topics would do a lot for my confidence as an engineer. So, I took my master’s as an opportunity to figure out what are the tangible applicable first steps for the variety of branches of tech that I am interested in.
Ifteda Ahmed-Syed Khoury’20, MS’23
Meet Amelia Brooks, DMSB’26! In celebration of the 115th anniversary of Northeastern’s innovative co-op program, we sat down with Amelia Brooks to learn more about the co-op from the perspective of an enrolled student. We discussed how Northeastern prepares students for their co-ops, what she learned in each of her co-op positions, and how she plans on celebrating the 115th anniversary.
Watch the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ5zYiD0LYc&t=9s
View the transcript here
“I still value everything that I learned at Northeastern,” says Nick Casbarro, BHS’14, while reminiscing about his time on the university’s Boston campus. “What I definitely pulled from Northeastern was a love for the sciences, and a professional network that I’ve used more than anything else in my entire life.”
Casbarro, a resident of South Florida by way of Rhode Island, is no stranger to balance. While at Northeastern, he exceled in his classes in Bouvé’s prestigious physical therapy program. To build on his academics, he found time to excel in his co-op positions at New England Baptist Hospital and Harvard Health services, all while as an accomplished pole vaulter on the track and field team.
“I learned a lot of [balancing] skills at Northeastern, and it’s probably the biggest thing I learned during my time there,” he says with a proud, yet modest inflection.
After graduation, Casbarro pursued his love of the sciences and helping others by entering the medical sales field. Today, he travels around the country selling medical-grade fish skin to hospitals to help burn victims regenerate their own skin. However, to complement his left-brained passions in the medical field, Casbarro tunes into his right brain to satisfy his creative passion: writing. After “thousands of hours” of preparation and execution, Casbarro is set to release his debut science fiction novel, “Vitalerium: Descent into the Void,” this October.
“I’ve been interested in science fiction ever since I was a kid,” Casbarro shares. “Just going back to some of the greats of the genre like Huxley, Orwell, and Asimov, there’s a lot of value to dystopian science fiction. It’s almost like it’s foreseeing humanity’s potential missteps or pitfalls as we’re approaching uncharted waters.”
Casbarro’s book rings true to his inspirations. Set in the year 2701, this 600-page sci-fi epic explores a society centered around the discovery of vitalerium, a gravity-bending blue crystal.
Casbarro recalls the process of developing the story, sharing tales of writing chapters on seemingly perpetual flights and jumping out of the shower to give life to a new character. However, one of the most important aspects that helped him cross the publishing finish line was his Northeastern network. Whether it be the professional connections he developed during his co-ops or his first-year roommate, he would “chat [with them] on the phone for hours to go back and forth on ideas.”
Casbarro’s self-guided equilibrium between his career in medical sales and moonlighting as an author perfectly encompasses what it means to be a Northeastern Husky. This is just the beginning for Casbarro, too. “Descent into the Void” is the first book of seven in the “Vitalerium” series. Already garnering critical acclaim from the science fiction community, Casbarro is on track to solidify his name among his contemporaries and create a legacy in the genre.
Order “Vitalerium: Descent into the Void” on Amazon
Amazon
Descent into the Void
What I definitely pulled from Northeastern was a love for the sciences, and a professional network that I’ve used more than anything else in my entire life.”
Nick Casbarro, BHS’14,