Ayesha Saleem strives to open any and all doors she possibly can to reach her goals. And she encourages others to follow her lead.
“What I find amazing about UM-Dearborn is that there are limitless opportunities,” Saleem said. “I love helping students understand all that they can do, both on and off campus. I am driven enough to take advantage of every opportunity thrown my way, and I strive to help other students do the same.”
For Saleem, those opportunities have included an internship at General Electric, where she helped to integrate Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home into GE appliances and software. She also authored a white paper that included a $1.2 million investment outline for conversational systems in GE’s 2018 budget. She has been recognized for her efforts through the Above and Beyond Award from GE Digital and the Most Innovative Idea and Best Pitch during the MLH Hackathon.
On campus, Saleem is the president of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), a national organization committed to helping propel women to achieve their full potential as engineers and leaders. Through SWE, she has organize a Women in STEM empowerment conference, inviting women from organizations like Google, Amazon and LinkedIn to speak on campus. And she helped hold a breast cancer fundraiser, where the organization raised more than $4000 in support of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Metro Detroit.
Elsewhere on campus, Saleem is a member of Upsilon Pi Epsilon, a computer science honor society, works as a research assistant and participates in the university’s Honors Program.
Saleem says she has come a long way since her days as a shy high school student—thanks to the opportunities she has had at UM-Dearborn.
“I was recently asked to be on a student panel for the admitted student reception. While I was on the panel, it hit me how much I had grown. I was speaking confidently and coherently to over 275 people,” she said. “This was my most defining moment because I was able to acknowledge how much I had grown. Looking into the audience, I realized that ‘freshman me’ would be in awe of the person I am today.”