Ellya Farhana Mohd Shaferi: Building A Community From Past Experiences

Photography(Debanyan Mukherjee)

Reporter: Jordan Guidry

TEMPE, Ariz. - Living away from her home, Ellya Farhana Mohd Shaferi uses her experiences to build a community for international students at Arizona State University. 

Being international herself, Shaferi battled obstacles of finding her own community and connecting with other cultures, trying to understand them while also not trying to forget her own. 

“I know how hard it is to come to America and find a community because I had a hard time balancing my cultural beliefs with trying to understand other cultural backgrounds,” Shaferi said in her office at the International Student Services Center. 

Shaferi struggled with understanding other cultures' languages and even being in America she had to learn to balance her beliefs while also celebrating other cultures' holidays. 

From these experiences, Shaferi said she's seen that obstacle in international students here at ASU in struggling to understand other cultural backgrounds. 

Shaferi said her experience in balancing different cultures helps her build that community with international students in helping them realize there's a community here at ASU. 

From building her own community, Shaferi is able to help her students understand that she will always be in their corner and will push them past their limits to become a part of the international community at ASU. 

Also working at the International Student Services Center, Anish Makhija, said Shaferi has impacted the team's dynamic in terms of welcoming international students to ASU.

Makhija said that Shaferi is well engaged with international students and ensures that they are well taken care of. Not only that but Anish has noticed a difference in the work teams community with the addition of Shaferi to the team. 

“She talks with students who are very not engaged and invites them into a community,” Makhija said about the engagement Shaferi puts herself in with students. “With Ellya there is much more organization with the team and there is more of a community with her on our team.”

Makhija said that with the addition of Shaferi on the team, there has been a big difference in community and building a community. Being international as well, Makjia has felt that Shaferi has created a family for him as well as other international students at ASU. 

Extending that statement of Shaferi changing the team dynamic, one of her student volunteers, Abdullah Alasiri, said Shaferi is the connecting point of the international student service center. 

Volunteering with Shaferi, Alasiri said he's seen Shaferi provide guidance to students as well trying to understand their feelings and connect with them on a personal level. 

Alasiri said that is how Shaferi creates a community with international students, personally getting to know them and understanding their backgrounds.  

“She tries her best to help others in terms of doing what they need and what they want and she tries to understand their feelings,” Alasiri said. 

Shaferi's understanding of what it means to be international and go through obstacles of belonging to a community have led her to help other international students find their community. 

From hearing Makhija and Alasiri, Shaferi has become the standpoint for the International Student Service Center in terms of creating a community for international students of different cultures. 

Both Makhija and Alasiri came to the agreement that Shaferi is the reason the International Student Services Building is the way it is with making international feel at home here at ASU. 

“Ellya’s personality makes her the connecting point for this place and without her there wouldn't be an International Students Services Center,” Alasiri said. 

Contact the reporter: 

Jordan Guidry 

818-903-1164

jdguidry@asu.edu