Hook of Hope

Product Information

Thank you to our amazing chair Jason Dewhurst and my fellow panel members Christophe Prince and James Cooke for an informative and interactive session. I am finally, finally at home," Nurjahan says. "I feel home, for me, is America because this is where I am comfortable in my own skin." Readers will discover the resilience and strength it takes to find oneself. We will see Nurjahan hook on to hope, as she finds her true and authentic self. People have sacrificed and paved the way for us, and I've got a role to play, especially while I'm in the civil service. I will do my best to do what I can to carve out spaces for people who feel marginalised.

colleagues sharing my leadership journey and brought together the many themes the two day event covered: Learning and education is very precious to me as my younger self had to fight against my family, my community, certain ideologies and against all odds just to pursue further and higher education. The journey was difficult but so worth it. A tip I always give to my mentees is this: don't take no for an answer. Allow yourself to feel down fora few days, but bring yourself up, reach out to your support networks, and keep pushing. You have to persevere. If I gave up on my dream to become a Director, I would not have this job to look forward to. I was working 16 hours a day and six days a week. I was travelling around the world; it was allvery intense. That kind of lifestyle is not conducive to caring responsibilities. So, I had to make a decision and change the type of job I was doing,” she said.

What Is Semantic Scholar?

And I have a legacy fellowship run by the Rothschild family, which has allowed me to be part of a community that brings together social entrepreneurs. It took me five years of continuous interviewing for a senior civil servant position, sogetting the role is a monumental momentbecause I am not aware of any other visible female Muslimdirector anywhere in government. I've been running a homeless soup kitchen for 15 years, inspired by the time I was homeless and lived on the streets of London for 21 months. We can't ignore that the murder of George Floyd sent waves of change to all spectrums of society, andit isa great time as an ethnic minority to leverage that in a positive way and where possible use that as an opportunity to develop and grow yourself. Departments are realising the benefit of diversity, and that's good news for you. There are so many talent programmes for ethnic minorities now. It wasn't like that in the early years of my career. This week I attended Civil Service Live in London where I was a panel member; title of the panel discussion was ‘How a strong evidence and science ecosystem can help us improve public service delivery, be more innovative and do more (even with less).’

Murielle Gonzalez, content strategy manager at Dods Diversity & Inclusion, is an experiencedjournalist and editor.She can be reached on [email protected]. To all those who were at the event and who are currently on my LinkedIn network please can you share the following with those who I am unable to connect with and reach: Department of Criminology and Police Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Tangail, Bangladesh. I worked my way up by working in different departments, with roles that wereup or down in grade. I joined the Home Office as an SEO and left the department to go to Treasury as a grade 7. She hopes her contribution supports their change journey and continues to impress on them that their efforts are valuable. She also hopes that the away-day allowed their staff to get to know one another, reflect on their common challenges, and increase motivation and engagement with their purpose.I spent five-and-a-half years at the Home Office, but this time was sadlynegative. It was completely different from my experience in the private sector, and I didn't have anybody helping me navigate that landscape.

Author Nurjahan Khatun BSc (Hons), MSc, MAPM was asked by the Lifelong Learning and Skills directorate to be a key note speaker for Scottish Government Away Day. Nurjahan returned to the United States in 2006 under a B-2 visa, which is given out for leisure, tourism or medical treatment. After years of renewing it, there were delays in the approval process, and ultimately, in 2009, she was forced to return to Bangladesh, where she feared for her safety.

Fellows (2023 - 2024)

I firmly believe that I belong in the SCS. But I grew up with a dual identity in a family and home that never felt like I belonged. So, I've learned to be resilient and fight against the odds. I am sorry I did not get a chance to speak to you all so do reach out to me here, connect with me and stay in touch;