Meet our alumni Faraz Chowdhury from the Class of 2011. The “Hawk Express” team interviewed him with some interesting questions! Let’s get to know about his journey after ISD!
🏀 What’s your favorite memory from ISD?
Faraz: It was some of the greatest times of my life and there are just too many to choose from. However, if I have to pick one it has to be the time I had with the basketball team during my senior year. The team itself consisted of players from grades 6, 8, 10, 11, and only two from grade 12 counting myself. It was all around just an intense, high-level energy environment with an outside coach of my choice, who ISD, fortunately, allowed me to bring in and coach the team. And the way we practiced, trained together, and pushed each other all while having indescribable fun and winning games in such dominant fashion was like a scene out of the movie “Coach Carter.”
🏀 What are some achievements you have made so far?
Faraz: I have graduated from St. John’s University in Queens, New York in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. But it goes beyond that degree alone. Because before my senior year, I had to do a lot of souls searching in terms of what I truly wanted to do after I graduate. So I stayed to myself, wrote down things I truly loved doing, meditated through the entire process, and ultimately made the innate decision to get into the business of basketball skills enhancement training which was trending fast and becoming a growing industry from 2014 onwards. Since I studied business and business is a broad, never-ending spectrum, I decided to combine that art with my true passion which was always the game of basketball. After graduation, I got certified by a basketball company in Las Vegas called I’m Possible Training founded by the great Micah Lancaster. With that certification, I was able to work hand in hand with an NBA Skills Coach named Marcus Hodges. And together we formed a partnership to host basketball clinics in China from 2017. Following that, I started my basketball training academy called 1Percent Basketball which aims to develop basketball players from all over the city, from different schools, universities, and even the National Team from a skills enhancement standpoint.
🏀 How has ISD shaped you into the person that you are?
Faraz: ISD has planted the seed in terms of how I was going to grow over the years to become the person that I am today. ISD had students and teachers from all over the world with different cultures, beliefs, mentalities, personalities, and mannerisms. So growing up in a school environment filled with international people has helped me in college because of how I was able to use the uniqueness of my personality that made people gravitate to me and I utilized it effectively to develop meaningful relationships with people from all races in a way where they not only welcomed me but always gave me that respect and assurance to let me know that they’re grateful for my presence in the university campus. As a result, I felt like I belonged where I was supposed to belong all this time. I made a ton of friends during my freshman year with diverse people from different countries with backgrounds. I did embrace it and took great pride in the fact that I can somehow have that refreshingly positive impact on people where they enjoy and appreciate my presence. The key I realized is to just be yourself. You don’t have to contrive anything but just tell your story where they can feel your words.
🏀 And lastly, do you have any advice for the students currently studying in ISD?
Faraz:
1. Be you. Never try to be like anyone else because there is only one of you in the world.
2. Find something that you truly love doing and stay focused on mastering it with tunnel vision.
3. Don’t let other people’s success speed up your process. Everyone goes at their own individual pace and if you try to rush your process, you will most likely skip important steps that are there solely and uniquely for your growth and personal development.
4. Never have F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out.) It is a big fat lie that makes you do nothing but overthink for no reason and it often becomes a pathway to depression due to the complete unnecessary creation of fake scenarios in your head. Truth is, whatever you might miss out on is always guaranteed to be followed by something infinitely better and more gratifying than what has already been gone. It is the law of life.
5. Keep your connections with your teachers alive and well. Always have that humility to go back to them because you never know when you need them and they just might have the answer to a solution that you may be searching for at any given time. For example, I still to this day have a great relationship with Mr. Rao. It started with him being my Business teacher in 2010, to him reaching out to me when I was struggling to go to sleep one summer night in 2013 when I was in New York, and now fast forward to this point in 2021 where we are good friends who always check up on one another, support each other, uplift one another with immense gratitude and get to talk basketball at every chance we get.