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Nobody is alone at UMass Amherst, no matter how far away they may be from home. A great example of this would be Ahmed, a sophomore who came to Western Massachusetts all the way from Karachi, Pakistan. “It was what I was used to. It’s a beautiful country," he said. However, he decided that he “was in too much of a bubble, of a comfort zone” and figured that he needed some sort of major change to continue growing.

Ahmed chose UMass for academic and extracurricular reasons. He has had a lifelong love for technology that “started out with me just fixing my home’s wifi” and grew into a hobby of programming. He meticulously researched the place anywhere in the world that could best help him progress in his passion and found that “UMass has constantly been on the rise in CS rankings and is a top public university and a research powerhouse.” Additionally, Ahmed quickly found that Amherst’s beautiful surroundings were a great fit for an avid outdoorsman like himself. He happily remarked that “being in the heart of Pioneer Valley has been amazing. Five minutes in any direction and there’s a mountain I can climb.”

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Coming from so far away, Ahmed describes his UMass journey as “quite the ride.” At times, he said, it was very daunting “coming here to a whole new place where the language spoken is not my first language and into a culture that was really alone to me in the beginning.” But by getting involved outside of classes he found a strong network of friends and peers. Ahmed is the treasurer of the Pakistani Students Organization where he connects with other students of Pakistani heritage. He was very enthusiastic about taking advantage of clubs like this and made the point to say, “we have more than 300 registered organizations, even the lettuce club.” 

Along with finding community with others from his home, Ahmed has found inclusion in his faith here as a member of the Muslim Student Association. He noted, “there’s a prayer room for me on campus” and “at the dining hall I’ve been served halal food,” so he feels at home even though he is not living in a predominantly Muslim area. Overall, Ahmed said that he thinks it is “amazing that I found a home away from home that I can build out here with students just like me.”