Asya Twahir

Current Position

I am currently a Program Coordinator at Jack.org, a national mental health advocacy organization. I’ve been learning about how to best impact, organize, and interact with outreach and local communications strategies to support Jack.org programming surrounding mental health awareness.

Favourite Memories at UTM

I applied to university for Computer Science and was in the ComSci Specialist POSt until the end of my 2nd year. But I had started realizing that social sciences were more aligned with my passions. Slightly later in my degree than most, I ended up pursuing a Specialist in Political Science instead.

I definitely can’t pick a favourite professor, since they were all generally very helpful and supportive. But I would highly recommend taking the course POL369 - Media and Politics if you can. It was one of my most memorable courses. To this day, it really informs the way that I consume entertainment and I used it as a foundation for my Major Research Paper.

Message from Asya

In the past year, I’ve held a number of different positions including Sales Representative, Research Assistant, Fundraiser, Urban Researcher, Communications/Marketing Specialist, and briefly a tutor. This, combined with what I said previously about my academic trajectory, provides a great example of how things don’t always fall exactly into place. But with time, effort, and most importantly, an open mind, it might be possible to do exciting things that you hadn’t even considered.