It is an absolutely amazing opportunity that today, I am able to invite someone (who I really really admire) to come here and talk about her experience building Iscicle - a social platform for international students that is growing fast - and that is Ariana Davarpanah. For some brief information about her, she graduated from Stanford University, and after many alterations in life, now she has been well known as co-founder of Iscicle! In this short post, Ariana will tell you a bit about her background and how she has ended up creating Ariana, and hope through this post, we can inspire you guys in following your dreams and passions!
To be honest with you, when I was in high school, I was just going through the motions. I didn’t know what I really wanted to do, where I wanted to go to uni, or how I was even going to accomplish that. I ended up not applying anywhere my senior year, instead choosing to enroll at my local community college. I went there hoping to study biology as a pre-med student, however I quickly learned that that wasn’t the path for me. A long chat with a trusted counselor helped me realize I was far more interested in helping areas like writing and reading, and was passionate about supporting immigrants. These interests intersected and I could see myself working as an immigration lawyer.
Once I realized this, I switched my major to political science and began working as hard as I could to transfer to a four-year university, joining campus communities and doing internships at political campaigns. I was so surprised when one day, in the spring of 2020, I received my transfer admission to Stanford University. It was truly a dream come true.
At Stanford, I explored politics, but realized my interests were more aligned with tech - I liked how fast-paced the tech world could be, and really enjoyed the chance I had to intern at a startup. Post-grad I worked a job at a fintech company, until I quit that role 11 months in to work full time on Iscicle - another dream come true.
Iscicle is a social platform and hub for international students. As a first generation Iranian-American, and the child of two former international students, getting to work on Iscicle means the world to me. I have seen first-hand what it means to be given access to opportunity, and I believe Iscicle can make that happen for so many students around the world.
At Iscicle, I handle everything nontechnical. From marketing to growth to business development, everyday I do something new, something different and most importantly, something impactful. I guess my “career” has been quite a journey of twists and turns, but I’ve learned so much along the way. My best advice for you? Follow your gut, do things you’re actually excited about, and do them for you.
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