“What do you want to do after you graduate?” The dreaded question that plagues every high schooler once they reach “upperclassman status.” Many students (myself included) may panic when asked this question, as they have no idea what they would like to do or the options that are available to them. 

If this resonates with you, I implore you to schedule a meeting with BSA’s new career coach, Mrs. Zahra Renani. She began working at BSA in 2024 and is so excited to work with students to guide them to a successful future. Whether it’s practicing for a job interview, creating a resume, or just finding your passion, Renani offers individual and small group workshops. She is at BSA as part of the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Employment Development.

Renani is originally from Iran and stated that she “always had a hard time” understanding what she was good at and what she wanted to do with her life, especially since everyone around her wanted to become scientists, engineers, or doctors—something she had no interest in being.

“When I grew up, I felt like something was wrong with me,” Renani said when asked about her path towards her future. “It was always a struggle, just like the simple thing of articulating what I was good at, or what I wanted to do with my life.” 

Renani bounced back and forth between several different career paths before ultimately deciding what she wanted to do. “I studied sociology back in my home country Iran for four years and I was like ‘oh my god, I don’t like this’…I moved to the US, it was about 11 years ago, and I was like ‘okay, I want to study marriage and family counseling for my masters…’ my last year was 2019 and I was like oh god, I don’t like this either,” voiced Renani, expressing her difficulty with deciding on a career path. 

She noted how she felt “terrible” and how she can remember the “emptiness” she felt in her heart due to the uncertainty of her future after sacrificing so much for her education. “2019 was my most difficult year. I was struggling with depression because of not having the answers to all these questions of what’s my purpose in life and what am I doing? What is the impact I want to have in life? I didn’t have any direction in my life.” Renani expressed. During this rough patch, she made a promise to herself that she would pass along the lessons she learned in any way she could.

Renani began researching and interviewing people on what their life’s purpose was and how they found their passion. After beginning a PhD program in counselor education and supervision at Western Michigan University, she was offered a job that entailed working with undecided first-year college students as their advisor. In this position, she shared her experience of being “undecided” for her entire life thus far with her students, and that has been her main method during her coaching career ever since.

Renani’s experience is akin to many young people in the world, especially during the formative years of high school and college. So far in her time at BSA, she has had one-on-one sessions with individual students, and a few workshops with upperclassmen in the film department. 

She assists by following a holistic, creative approach, encouraging students to “create meaning” for their lives. 

Her philosophy is not very specific but it is enlightening. “I call it ‘let’s have a connection with ourselves through love,’ because that connection will create a lot of connections with the whole world around us, the people we want to serve, the impact we want to have in the community, and what we want to do in the whole world to make sure that during the time that we are here, we do something that is worthy, that is fulfilling, and then yes, we can make money out of it too.” 

Renani has plenty of workshops for students to participate in, such as resume building/writing, interest inventory, strengths assessment, career clusters, digital storytelling, interview preparation, and more. 

She also has big plans for her future at BSA. “Within BSA, it is my hope that I get to reach every single student and they at least know that I’m available,” Renani mentioned. “I would like to be a more creative career coach…right now I’m focused on something called future visualization…” 

Mrs. Renani is so excited to work with every student to help them with their career goals and life plans. She is a great addition to BSA’s wonderful staff and will work to ensure every student who meets with her has an idea about what they’d like to do in the future.

Students can contact Renani at her email zameli@bsfa.org, check out her website www.careeativity.com, or just come into her office in room 407 at any time on a Thursday or Friday. Stay ahead of the game and plan for your future today!

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Featured photos by Kyndall Roots for The Muse.