Warda Ahmed is leading a life dedicated to service, a quality that should serve her well in her intended career as a physician. She has been part of Project 351, a youth-centered nonprofit that selects one eighth grader from every town in Massachusetts to lead community service initiatives, since she was in middle school. She also organized large-scale food and clothing drives in her community.
Now nearing college graduation, Warda’s commitment to service has only increased. She is still working with Project 351, but now in a leadership role, supporting two major statewide events each year as the welcoming lead, who provides transportation support, handles hotline outreach, and serves on the medical team as an EMT. Additionally, as a part of the Alternative Breaks program for two years, she co-led a team of 10 volunteers to Seattle to serve with Urban ArtWorks, painting a mural honoring a Northeastern grad student who lost her life to police violence. Most recently, she co-led a trip to London to serve with Granville Community Kitchen, an organization that addresses food insecurity and community displacement due to gentrification.
Much of Warda’s service has been in the medical field. As a volunteer at Boston Community Pediatrics, she helped the Care Navigation and Administration team support patients’ needs outside the clinic, such as
enrolling them in summer camps. She was also a pediatrics surgery volunteer and front desk greeter at Massachusetts Eye & Ear.
Warda is also an outstanding academic with a 3.99 GPA in biochemistry. She has been named to the Huntington 100 and Dean’s List, recognized as an Advancing Women in Science Scholar, and is a recipient of the Condit Award. Professor Jude Matthews says, “Her intellectual ability, generosity, and professionalism set her apart, and she represents the very best of our students.”
“In each of her two co-ops, Warda demonstrated a thoughtful approach to gaining real world experience,” says College of Science Associate Director of Co-op Jacquelyn MacDonald. “She was both careful and creative as she considered opportunities alongside her goal to pursue a career in medicine.” Warda’s first co-op was as a biology researcher at Larkspur Biosciences. As a patient care technician in general and vascular surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Wanda improved comfort and recovery for patients through wound care, mobility, and post-operative monitoring.
That’s not the extent of Warda’s accomplishments. She’s also been a knack tutor, peer mentor, and teaching assistant.
“Northeastern shaped not only how Warda has studied, but who she has become,” says MacDonald. “Warda is someone who brings professionalism, warmth, humor and genuine purpose to every environment she enters.”
After a gap year for research, Warda hopes to attend medical school.
