Priom Ahmed: The Face of Columbia’s Student Wellness Project

Name: Priom Ahmed

School, Year, Major:  CC, 2014, MESAAS

We are a group of students who promote a culture of well-being. We hold honest conversations about our attempts to achieve wellness as college students, host a Random Acts of Kindness Week in the spring, and push for policy changes. We constantly reflect on campus wellness issues that need to be addressed and work on implementing these changes.

I am the co-chair, along with Sara Donatich, BC 2013.

What is the most exciting initiative you’ve seen the student wellness project do: 

I am most excited about our current initiative: Our policy chair just submitted a proposal to make first semester pass/fail for freshmen. If approved, this could allow incoming students to explore their interests and grow in fundamentally different ways. It could allow them to focus on things other than grades – ie their wellness and their self-development.

I would change the messages we’re given from the beginning about Columbians being the best of the best, Olympic athletes and award-winning playwrights. I would shift the focus on broader definitions of fulfillment and success. I would stress the importance of failure, of self-compassion and of human connections.

There would be equal access in the world.

I want to be a good person. If this is any more specific: I’ve been thinking about going into international development, focusing on women’s rights and poverty alleviation.

Be humble. Humility is recognizing that your body is not a machine; it needs sleep, it needs to do less. It means honoring the good in other people. It means realizing that you do not know everything and cannot always be right.