When I first joined the school Newspaper two years ago, I had the pleasure of having two wonderful editors. One of those editors goes by the name of Azwad Ahmed. I managed to learn quite a few things through the little messages he left behind for me, and I knew I had big shoes to fill. Once he graduated back in 2021, it seems like his life has taken off for the better
Now a Sophomore at the University of Florida, he’s majoring in psychology on the Pre-Med track. “Psychology always interested me growing up, and I have aspirations of becoming a psychiatrist.”
There’s no doubt of the course load that a Pre-Med student holds, but the extracurricular activities that he’s in at the university may be just as, if not more, impressive.
Ahmed is currently an executive board member of the Bangladeshi Students’ Association on campus, known as BSA for short. “BSA works to foster awareness and appreciation for the Bangladeshi culture at UF.”
BSA hosts social fundraisers and service events throughout campus.
“Currently, we are working on our biggest event of the spring semester, the BSA show,” he says. “It’s essentially a cultural showcase where [we] have many different cultural groups perform and show off their unique skills and talents.”
This is an incredible opportunity for students on campus to be able to show their culture to those around them and connect to those who are also a part of their culture. It not only strengthens relationships on campus, but it also strengthens the spirit on campus.
On top of his obligations for BSA, he also works for projects off-campus.
“I am also a part of Project Downtown. Project Downtown is a local nonprofit that serves meals to homeless and underserved residents in Gainesville,” Ahmed says. “Project Downtown is an incredibly rewarding experience and I get to meet many different people from all sorts of backgrounds.”
These types of projects should be available in all cities across the country; it allows you to help those who need them the most.
“In a college town like Gainesville, I am a firm believer that you should give back most residents of Gainesville are college students who are only there for a few years…” he says.
He’s also part of something called The Code Blue Project, a project that was created in order to inform people across the world what the importance of bystander CPR is. “Currently, we are working on translating a CPR guide into every language that we possibly can.”
He also teaches CPR and CNA at GatorCPR.
Outside of all of that, he’s also a freelance photographer, sending out his photos to news publications around the town. He credits this passion for news photography to Mrs. Clifton, who at the time was the adviser for The Tribe. “I loved capturing different perspectives and memories, especially when it comes to sports.”
After he graduates college, he hopes to go to medical school. But, he would love to travel the world and, “… capture all of life’s moments through photography.”
