Story #119: Farah’s and Meherina’s Reflections

The following is a transcript from Meherina Khan and Farah Afify’s “Mini Ted Talk” at PBHA’s Alumni Weekend on Nov. 9th, 2024.

Meherina:

It's really humbling to follow people who have built these incredible things. And now, we're about to tell you the tale of how we survived. So, let's start there.

Our journey as PBHA officers in 2020 began with seeds—sunflowers and daisies, basil and mint. Our theme for the year was to nurture and sustain a community garden, fostering a culture of collective care, shared accountability, and community building, both within PBHA and beyond.

On the first day of the Non-Profit Management Intensive, we encouraged the team to look after each other, our constituents, and our little seedlings. That day, in the Parlor Room, we didn’t just plant flowers and herbs; we planted seeds of trust, hope, and a commitment to growth. We promised to shower them with care and PBHA love.

We didn’t get to witness the bloom of our sunflowers, nor enjoy the aromatics of our mint, but amidst the chaos of the pandemic, we watched our community garden flourish virtually in ways we never anticipated.

We didn’t know how to lead during a pandemic, but we were steadfast in centering the needs and voices of our communities and the people we served. We went from being in the rooms where it happened to the Zooms where it happened. We supported the online transition of over 35 programs, moving them to remote operations—from after-school programs to ESL classes.

We also launched a series called "So You Want to Be Anti-Racist," in collaboration with other student groups across campus, including final clubs. The series encouraged introspection, learning in action, and pushing beyond surface-level engagement and performative allyship.

When Halloween came and trick-or-treating was paused, we delivered over 80 Halloween goodie bags to after-school kids who couldn’t make it to Harvard for their annual Halloween party. We helped with food security and technology during the shutdown. We celebrated 324,000 seconds together during virtual Midsummer. We created a 15K fund during the Black Lives Matter movement, using our officer discretionary funds to support Black-led organizations.

We became Zoom DJs, mastering 100+ person breakout rooms, and spent an absurd amount of time figuring out how many ways we could use the word “contingency” in a sentence.

Overall, we found solace in service, in community, and in each other, through moments of grief and moments of joy. I’m really happy to see that the video game is still going strong, so thank you to everyone who was a part of my virtual videos during SUB and online PBHA.

And now, I’ll pass it off to Farah.

Farah:

So, I know it’s a bit unusual, but we’re tag-teaming this. Mahina and I worked closely together during that time. I was on the officer team when we first moved to remote operations, and I like to call myself the "second COVID baby" because Mahina saw the organization migrate online, and I oversaw the transition back to in-person operations.

Hearing the current officers reflect on how the pandemic is now in the distance is really heartwarming. I was speaking with Cody and Andalia—both first-years who I helped recruit to the officer team when I was a senior. At that time, it felt like such an existential moment because when I picked up from Mahina, PBHA had been operating virtually for almost a year. I was one of maybe two or three officers who had actually seen what an in-person PBHA looked like. We also saw two entire classes graduate while we were functioning during the pandemic.

So, our biggest challenge when I picked up from Mahina and her wonderful VP, Chia, was grappling with the deep emotional difficulty of not knowing when we’d even come back in person. We also had to contend with massive institutional memory loss. We were asking ourselves how younger leaders—who had never seen PBHA in person and had not known it as their institutional home—were going to figure out how to be in that space again.

It was all about meeting the moment.

Our theme, coming out of Mahina’s beautiful "garden" theme, was "circus." I’ll admit, I had mixed feelings about it at the time. I was like, okay, gardens are beautiful—growth, planting, nurturing—but this is a circus. Things are all over the place, and we’re juggling a lot. But that’s what it felt like—juggling remote work, juggling hybrid situations where some things were in person and others were remote, and also juggling the transition back to in-person operations.

One of the things that was key was moving at the speed of trust. We weren’t going to crash land back into PBHA, with 60+ programs, in the first week. We had to ease back into it.

Another challenge we faced was that Harvard wasn’t even fully open at the time. I completely forgot this until just now, but we couldn’t meet inside the building. I kept wondering why I remember us being outside all the time, and then I realized—we didn’t have a choice! We spent a lot of time in tents. We had a huge tent right outside the PBHA building, where we held officer meetings, cabinets, and other events. It was starting to get cold, and we weren’t really sure what we were going to do, but we kept meeting outside.

We rebooted programs, like the Housing Opportunities Program, to support people who were facing eviction due to the pandemic. We took trips to meet with community organizations, reinvigorating new members of the class and helping them build connections to the community.

It also became about older members, especially, feeling a deep sense of responsibility to mentor those who had not seen PBHA in person. We not only stayed during the summer as students, but there was also a group of us who returned after graduation to help mentor new directors who had never seen PBHA in person. We wanted to help them reconnect with the space and culture we’d worked so hard to build.

I’ll wrap up with a few lessons learned and pass it back to Mahina for her insights. But I’ll keep it brief. There was a moment when I was feeling really down, as you do, and I was talking to an alum via Zoom. I can’t remember the alum’s name, but I was in a bad place and saying that everything felt horrible and I didn’t know how we were going to make it through. And this alum said, "I hear you, but let me check you for a moment." He said that this happens—there are always going to be moments when things feel existential at PBHA—but you’re going to be good.

So, I share that with you all: whenever things feel existential, know that you’re going to be good.

The other piece of advice I want to share with the current officers is this: Do not take your space for granted. Coming back to PBHA wasn’t just about rebuilding relationships with other students and figuring out how to be together again after the pandemic. It was also about rebuilding our relationship to the building itself—our institutional home. It’s different without it, and yet we can survive without it. But it’s in that space that we do our best, most connected visioning of what community service should look like.

I’ll leave you with those thoughts and pass it to Mahina.

Meherina:

Thanks, Farah. I’m definitely fangirling right now because, when I was a student, I did a lot of advocacy work with SLAM, Hope, and immigrants’ rights, and we studied the living wage campaign and the Civil Rights era. So, being up here with you all is definitely a fan moment for me.

During my time as an officer, we learned so much about leadership, trust, and how to extend grace to each other—and to ourselves. I was talking to Chia, my partner in service for so many years, about how our most valuable gift remains the friendships we built and the radical love we tapped into. These were the roots of the community garden we planted so many years ago.

I want to close with a quote from Gloria Steinem, which I still reflect on from my time at PBHA:

"Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

As we plan ahead and dream about what’s next, I want to encourage our current student leaders: know that we have your back. We want to create space for you to continue being the innovative problem-solvers and dedicated servant-leaders our world needs. Whether it’s during a crisis or in times of renewal, you have a network of supportive leaders who have been there before you. Lean on us as you continue the work we’ve started.

Watch the recording of their speech here.