Making it Work: Sadia Sindhu

Sadia Sindhu lives by the American rapper Eminem’s philosophy of “Success is my only option, failure’s not.”

At the crack of dawn, with a steaming cup of espresso in hand, she wakes up to the only quiet time she has in her day. With no email traffic from the hustle and bustle of work, she savors her protected time. Whether it be for deep thought or a small work session, it’s time just for her. 

But before she wears the hat of founding executive director for the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government, for which she does research on the inner workings of American democracy, she is a mother to her young daughter, Zoe, and wife to her husband, Usman. 

However, after dropping Zoe off at Earl Shapiro Hall for school and bidding farewell to Usman for his job, the business of her job starts. Sadia is in meetings all day, in and out of conference rooms and buildings, all over campus for approximately nine hours.

But why does she love her job so much when it asks so much from her? Because she truly and passionately cares about what she does. 

As a woman of color and the daughter of immigrants, she feels she’s carving a path that was not laid out by anyone else before within her family or by people who look like her. 

And she’s grateful for a job that allows her to make an impact on what matters to her. She used to work in the finance field, but during the 2016 presidential election, in which anti-Islamic rhetoric was strongly perpetuated by the incoming Trump Administration, she felt she needed to be closer to the action and impact.

She feels both exhausted and energized by her demanding role, but with her driving purpose in mind, she makes it work.