Hello everyone! My name is Sereen Suleiman, my pronouns are she/her, and I live in Orange County, CA with my family. My journey to the School of Information has been a rollercoaster ride, but nevertheless, I am thankful for the experiences I’ve had along the way. As this is a brand new blog post, I will keep editing and adding as time goes by. But to summarize, I am going through an exciting career transition and can’t wait to explore the library world.
Currently, I am a sorter and sales associate at my local library bookstore. Through this experience, not only am I exposed to collection development procedures, but I get to witness how involved the library interacts with the local community. Furthermore, I was a project specialist at my community college’s office for students with learning disabilities. Through that position, I worked with the counselors to volunteer at two speeches towards faculty about improving classroom conditions for students diagnosed under the ASD spectrum (along with office work, of course). Working with my fellow counselors then introduced me to DiversityComm–a magazine company that aims to promote diversity and disability awareness among the Orange County community–in which I worked as an intern writer for two years.
The event that truly set me on my path towards library sciences was the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. During that time, I reflected on all my interests: writing, helping the community, education, etc. From that reflection, I ultimately decided that the library path is where I belong. This led me to search for MLIS programs and I came across the School of Information at San Jose State University. Now, here I am today, facing our current, confusing time with optimism. As of now, I’m leaning towards being an academic librarian, but my program has so many career options available, so I’ll also choose to be open-minded. I plan to graduate in December 2023, which should give me time to explore different career routes.
Aside from reading, I love art, especially painting. Although, I recently started doing charcoal drawings. Furthermore, I am interested in gardening and baking.