Harper Talks Episode 45 – Ushna Zamir

Harper Talks Episode 45 - Ushna Zamir

Transcript

Harper Talks: The Harper Alumni Podcast
Show 45:  – Harper Talks — Ushna Zamir

[00:00:00.210] - Brian Shelton

I'm Brian Shelton, and you're listening to Harper Talks, a coproduction of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Today on Harper Talks, I'm excited to speak with Ushna Zamir. She attended Harper College from 2017 to 2019, and then transferred to the University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, where she earned a degree in Communication. I'm going to join me in the podcast lab in Building D. Thanks for being here.

[00:00:21.780] - Ushna Zamir

Of course. Thank you for having me today.

[00:00:23.190] - Brian Shelton

Hey, you're the first guest in the podcast lab.

[00:00:25.360] - Ushna Zamir

It's beautiful.

[00:00:26.400] - Brian Shelton

What do you think? What do you think?

[00:00:26.950] - Ushna Zamir

I love it. Yeah, I know. I love it. Yeah.

[00:00:28.670] - Brian Shelton

Our little closet space That's what we have over here in Building D. It's nice. Yeah. So it's good to see you. I think that you are the first person who's been on this show, all whatever, a number episode we're on now, who was actually here when I was teaching here. Really? And that I've traveled with. So I know that we traveled together on the speech team when you were on the speech team here at the college.

[00:00:52.010] - Ushna Zamir

I've taken your classes.

[00:00:52.630] - Brian Shelton

Yeah, you've taken classes. So it's just weird. Yeah. But anyway, I was just curious how you came to choose Harper for your education.

[00:01:00.030] - Ushna Zamir

Yeah, I don't want to sugarcoat it either. Honestly, it was a very logical decision at the time. I was figuring out where I was going to go financially, wanting to stay close by family. So it just made sense at the time. I didn't have a lot of money, wanted to be close. Harper is about 15 minutes from my parents' place and very, very cost-effective as we know. As time went on, it was by far the best decision I ever made. But at the time, I don't think being that young as a child, you don't really understand the weight of the choices that you make.

[00:01:31.130] - Brian Shelton

Well, why is that? Why was it the best decision that you made?

[00:01:34.270] - Ushna Zamir

It was the people that I met along the way. To this day, I still have so many lifelong friends. I had just visited a friend in Korea who I met by working and having classes together at Harper. I visited him and traveled with other people who also went to Harper. My fiancé is somebody I met at Harper. I was on the speech and debate team, the coaches, people like that. Obviously, you have made such an impact in a way that in other forums, schools, et cetera, just haven't had the same lingering effects. So by far, definitely the best decision I've made.

[00:02:07.380] - Brian Shelton

Yeah. Well, we'll talk about this, but you did leave Harper and go to U of I, which is not exactly a small school.

[00:02:13.500] - Ushna Zamir

Yeah. (laughs)

[00:02:14.350] - Brian Shelton

Yeah? So do you think that that has something to do with the size of Harper and the ability to, I don't know, be personal?

[00:02:21.420] - Ushna Zamir

I think so, yeah, because I forgot the number off the top of my head. But I remember when I was reading about it, they talk about the difference between the one-on-one interaction. I think it's like, the number of professors versus students is way easier for you to reach out if you have any questions afterwards. If you want to be a part of a team like Speech and Debate, it's a lot smaller of our team, so you can really improve. A lot of things like that versus my lecture halls at U of I. I did enjoy it there as well. I learned a lot, but it's literally hundreds of kids who are in business communication or things like that. So you don't really get to have any real connection with people. It's hard to even make friends I feel in that format.

[00:03:01.250] - Brian Shelton

Yeah, unless you're in a specific group of people, right?

[00:03:04.220] - Ushna Zamir

Exactly.

[00:03:04.850] - Brian Shelton

That's interesting. You mentioned the speech team. How did you come to the speech team here at Harper College? Did you do speech in high school?

[00:03:11.550] - Ushna Zamir

I did. It's actually a funny story. In high school, I joined the speech and debate team because it was called Forensics. I was a big science person, so I thought it was forensic science. I was such a wimp when I came to speech and debate that I just kept going, even though I didn't like it. I was very nervous, and I kept going. I was not good. I never placed, never broke, nothing like that. But I left early. I didn't do it for the full four years. I always had this what-if moment. If I applied myself, maybe if.... I had coaches that really believed in me, maybe I could be better at this. I still remember during one of our first few practices when I had a one-on-one with Jeff Prizbylo, one of the speech and debate coaches. He was like, I'm going to put all my trust in you. This may be the first time a coach has told you, I fully believe in you, but let's turn that into something that you can actually action, that you can actually be better in. For some reason, hearing that when you haven't heard that from anyone else, that I believe in you, I trust that you can be better, that you can be great, it really, really motivated me immensely.

[00:04:17.890] - Ushna Zamir

So it helped me to stay committed to the full two years, to be really passionate. And then I also had the opportunity to be the leader as well, the second year for the and debate team. So really, really great coaches and people.

[00:04:33.700] - Brian Shelton

That's great. Jeff telling you he believed in you is a real boon to your psyche. But did that also put pressure on you? Was that always... Was that also a fear

[00:04:45.460] - Ushna Zamir

Honestly, I really don't think it was. I was just glad to finally have somebody who had that faith in my ability and was actually seeing me for me versus even in speech, there was like 30, 40 kids who were on the speech and debate team. At Harper, as you know, it's like, at least my first year was single digits, I think. I don't even think we had double digits. It was a lot easier for me to have that one-on-one time with them. For somebody who was really lackluster in the beginning, it was really needed and appreciated.

[00:05:13.290] - Brian Shelton

That's cool. We've had several people who have been involved in a speech in to debate at the college on the show, and it's always the same thing. The coaches do such a great job with that group. I told Jeff that you were coming in today, and he's like, Oh, my goodness. It's such an embarrassment of riches to have so many people come on the show. But, yeah, I mean, it's a good thing. It is.

[00:05:33.060] - Ushna Zamir

It is. It is. It is.

[00:05:33.940] - Brian Shelton

How did being at Harper help prepare you for U of I, such a big transition going there?

[00:05:39.370] - Ushna Zamir

Yeah, I think I thought I knew how to study in high school. It turns out I didn't know. I think I was just getting away with over time. I listened during lectures, and that's all you have to do. You didn't really have to do that focus studying afterwards. Harper is one of those places where I felt like I had enough time where I could figure things out and really understand what I needed to do to apply myself to my studies. There was also just a lot of other resources I felt so comfortable reaching out to my professors and other students. I had study groups for my chemistry exams at the time and things like that that helped me I just really focus and reel in. It made it really a seamless transition when I went to U of I. I didn't really have any problems or concerns when I came to studying there. So, Harper helped me a lot for that.

[00:06:25.980] - Brian Shelton

For sure. I'm going to say something here, and maybe Maybe it just shows that I don't know you as well as I thought that I knew you when you were. But I always pictured Ushna going to medical school or something. You're working in HR at Raytheon, a very large global organization. Tell me how that came about.

[00:06:47.180] - Ushna Zamir

How did that come about? Yeah, you're right on that. My first freshman year, I was studying in chemistry to be, in some capacity, majoring in chemistry at the very least. I was taking a bunch of difficult classes like Organic Chemistry, Anatomy and Admin Fizz. I was in the honors program. On top of working two jobs and being on the speech team, it was a lot. While I was doing that, I realized I have to figure out what my right priorities are here, what balls need to be dropped and can be dropped? I needed the money. That was a non-negotiable at the time, unfortunately. I really enjoyed speech and debate, and I really enjoyed the classes, like communication-related classes as Well, chemistry was the one thing that just wasn't entirely making sense for me. I had conversations with my speech coaches at the time, like Josh Thunderbrook, Jeff, Margaret. I think it was really helpful to have those one-on-one conversations because I realized there are other paths. You don't have to force yourself to be... I thought the only way to be successful is to be in some stem-related field, chemistry, things like that. Communications, HR, those kinds of related, what people consider soft skills, that is just as important.

[00:08:01.070] - Ushna Zamir

You can still be successful and make a living and survive in this world without having to go down that path. I was really grateful for that. They made me feel confident like, yeah, you're good with public speaking. You should try and consider pursuing communications. So that's when I made that decision to switch on over, and I have not regretted that decision since.

[00:08:22.100] - Brian Shelton

That's great. That's fantastic. So you are working in human resources for a global company. How did you get into human resources? How did that happen?

[00:08:32.090] - Ushna Zamir

Yeah, I was in my senior year at U of I. Actually, I was helping support the Foundation at U of I from a communication perspective, and I was considering what the options were. And just the Foundation work didn't seem like it was the ideal moment for me to focus on that at that time. I was exploring what other options still relied a lot on communications, but also pulled into data analytics, strategic thinking, because that was still at the end of day, one of my passions. That's why I felt like I should have gone into chemistry or some stem-related field. As I was doing my research, human resources seemed like the perfect blend of both communications. You have to talk with people all the time. But certain aspects, especially if you're working at a larger company like a Fortune 500 company, you can still be in a really niche or specialist field like HR data analytics. That could just be a blend of both worlds together. There was a program at U of I that was a year and a half program. I went through the program and it really helped set me up for success, see different employers and internship opportunities.

[00:09:37.920] - Ushna Zamir

I ended up interning and then also doing a rotational program at Raytheon, which is going really great so far. I actually graduate from the program in June, and then I technically off place a little early into my new role at the beginning of April. It's been going great.

[00:09:53.420] - Brian Shelton

Tell me about that. You're in a leadership development program there?

[00:09:56.110] - Ushna Zamir

Yes, I was. I was in a leadership development program for HR, where over the span of two years, you will be trying out two different roles. So one of them is typically an HR partner role. That's what you typically think of, what most people think of when they think of HR, typically on-site, helping with different kinds of queries that employees may have, helping ensure that the business, having good relationships with the business when it comes to succession planning and making sure that we're retaining employees, we have a good connection with them, those kinds of things. And then the other year program is a little bit more of a specialist role, like an expertise role. For example, you could be working within compensation and benefits. You could be working on the data analyst side, talent acquisition, talent management, et cetera, to learn a little bit more of a focus, specialized area within HR. Then after that, you'll have an opportunity to... It feels like a real-world job where the training wheels are off. You know it's going to be more than a year now that you're going to be in the role and really explore what your interests are and that you've tried a couple of roles out.

[00:11:05.410] - Brian Shelton

That's great. A really great opportunity to learn and grow in the company that you're working for. That's pretty cool.

[00:11:10.940] - Ushna Zamir

Yeah, I agree.

[00:11:12.420] - Brian Shelton

Is it weird being here on campus today?

[00:11:14.310] - Ushna Zamir

Honestly, a little bit, but I was thinking about it before and I was like, I feel like I still fit in a little bit. The only thing that's off is maybe I don't have a backpack or something. Maybe that's just me being old and thinking I still fit in.

[00:11:27.750] - Ushna Zamir

Old, yes. You're so oldish. You're so old. Yes. I ask everybody when they come on the show, and I'm particularly interested in what you have to say, and you've hit on this a little bit here, but it really hasn't been that long since you were here at Harper as a student and going through the program here, and now you've gone on, and you're a real adult now, right? You're out there. I'm curious what advice you might have for current students at Harper College.

[00:11:53.840] - Ushna Zamir

Yeah, I would definitely want to emphasize, even if you've heard this so many times to the students listening, make sure that you're going out of your way to join extracurriculars, to make connections, make friends, talk to your professors, because for your professors, all they want is your success, right? They've helped out so many students in the past. They know so many people who've been going through similar situations as you. I feel like a lot of people are attracted to Harper for a multitude of reasons, but they all generally get bucketed into a handful of reasons. So it's really helpful, I feel, to feel comfortable reaching out for any kinds of questions there. And then the students, too. I mean, like I said, I've made my lifelong friends. There's so many countless, like double digits, right, of people that I'm still in contact with that I met through Harper in some capacity. So don't, don't feel shy from making those kinds of connections there. And another thing as well is don't feel bad about not having your whole life figured out either. I felt like I needed to have it figured out. And it's okay if you need a little time to take a break or just figure out what path makes sense for you.

[00:13:00.960] - Ushna Zamir

Harper is a perfect place for that. There is, since I've left, even so many more new opportunities for career paths that have emerged through Harper. So, the possibilities are endless.

[00:13:11.770] - Brian Shelton

Yeah, I think it's a real problem. We talk about this a lot with folks when they come in, because so many folks who come to Harper and wind up on this particular program that we're doing here have very similar stories where they thought they were going in one direction, and they wound up going in a completely different direction in life and career and that thing. I think there's a lot of pressure put on young people to figure out what they're going to do for the rest of their life when they're like, 15 years old. It's a bit much, I think.

[00:13:36.480] - Ushna Zamir

Just a tad.

[00:13:37.110] - Brian Shelton

Yeah, just a tad. A 14-year-old at home, and she's talking about what she wants to do and stuff. I'm like, maybe just slow your roll a little bit.

[00:13:44.340] - Ushna Zamir

I can't believe she's 14.

[00:13:45.740] - Brian Shelton

Yeah, it's crazy, right? Yeah, it's crazy stuff. I forget. Yeah, that's right you know my daughter. All right. Well, Ushna Zamir, thank you so much for coming in and doing this today. It was so much fun to catch up with you and talk to you and see all the great things that you're doing with your life.

[00:13:59.510] - Ushna Zamir

It's great Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. Great to see you, too.

[00:14:03.800] - Brian Shelton

Ushna Zamir is a Harper College graduate and works in Human Resources at Raytheon, and I'm sure she'll be back on the show one day as a Harper College Distinguished Alumni. If you're enjoying Harper Talks, please subscribe. And while you're at it, rate and review us so that others might find us. Harper Talks is a coproduction of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Our show is produced by Shannon Hynes. This episode was edited by Koby Pozo. Our online content producer is Vicky D. Our was created by Aiden Cashman. I'm Brian Shelton. Thanks for listening.