Samer's Spotlight

What I Do

I work (alongside Chet!) to support all the various Faculty members in our department, whether it comes to processing visitor appointments, promotion and reappointment cases, or other faculty affairs related matters like sabbaticals and leaves. Our office handles faculty searches, hiring, timekeeping, and much of the administration that keeps the department up and running.

Origins

I am a California boy through and through. I was born and raised in the Bay Area and got to experience a few different cities growing up, including Daly City, San Bruno, and the one and only San Francisco. I currently live in Belmont but have spent time all over the state, including four years in Los Angeles/Westwood/Santa Monica for my undergraduate education at UCLA, and a brief stint in Fairfield and Chico up north during the pandemic. I think you can spend your whole life in California and never run out of things to do or places to see. They don't call it the Golden State for nothing.

My academic, career, and life trajectory have been pretty much all over the place. I studied English Literature at UCLA (and got my Master's at SFSU during the pandemic) and planned on going into teaching until I saw what it paid. Thankfully, I've always been a pretty adaptable and personable guy and never had too much trouble finding ways to pay the bills. I worked a lot of odd jobs during school like busboy, cashier, stockroom worker. I also got to work as a security guard at a vape lounge, a bouncer at a club (for the record, I hate West Hollywood), a literary agency assistant, screenplay editor, afterschool program leader, academic advisor, and as a career counselor at SFSU (this one was the funniest, it really was the blind leading the blind). My roommate and I even used to charge those electric bird scooters in LA because we didn't pay for electricity in our building, you could make a decent amount of spending money that way. I actually ended up getting recruited into this role through somebody who reached out on LinkedIn! After the winding road that led to it, it was a surprisingly straightforward experience. I do still try and look for side hustles though, it's always good to have backup plans and I never want to settle on just one thing. Life's too short, and the whole hyperspecialization thing is for the faculty, not me.

My EExperience

I think this department is filled with people who are full of both professional and lived experience and most are more than happy to share and pass along that wisdom. I know for a fact that the environment we've created with one another as staff members is extremely supportive and conducive to collaboration. I know that if I have a question about a certain process or procedure, I can go to one of my colleagues and they'll help me figure it out. There's just too much going on to expect any one person to know and understand everything so we stick together, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Outside of Work

I have a lot of these! I could never stick to one thing growing up (maybe this is a symptom of being a Pisces, I'm not sure). I still am a huge reader even after completing my schooling and average about 50-80 books a year, a lot of fantasy and science fiction (read: typical guy stuff) but some nonfiction finds its way into the pile here and there too, especially relating to other interests like personal fitness, Palestine, and space (my three current hyperfixations.) I specialized in science fiction during grad school and always get really excited to talk to people about Dune because I wrote my thesis on it before the movies made the popularity of it skyrocket.

I work out pretty regularly and have developed a tendency to ramble about deadlift and bench press form to anybody who will listen. I love hiking and the outdoors. I love sneakers. Buying them, selling them, looking at them, I just think they're neat. I play the drums in my spare time but honing those skills is still a work in progress. Also cats! Animals in general, I was the kid that dragged my parents to the zoo every weekend and never grew out of it. I'm also really big on memes as anybody who has seen my timekeeping reminders can probably tell. The world is a better place if you can help people muster up at least a chuckle.

I really like learning languages but tend to spread myself too thin. I can cuss people out in like nine languages but once I get to the grammar rules, I always zone out. Hmm what else? I like taking polaroids of my friends and family. You capture so much of a person in that way, like mini instant portraiture.

Favorite Spot

On campus: Is it cheating to say the Robotics Center? We're so close to it I feel like I've gotten to see it develop firsthand from a relatively empty cavernous space to a thriving hub full of life and burgeoning potential. It makes me happy even if I find AI unnerving and terrifying and irritating. I think I'm too much of a humanities person to ever fully "get it" but I like the space. The Arizona Garden is a close second, there are types of cacti over there I didn't even know existed. 

Off campus: This one is even harder. I love Mt. Tamalpais up in Marin, the views are incredible. I also really love the beaches in Coronado, San Diego. Also a lot of different parts of Amman will always hold a special place in my heart because so much of my Mom's family lives there and there are a lot of childhood memories associated with it.

Me sitting on the biggest stump I’ve ever seen in my life (Eagle Falls, Lake Tahoe area), I felt like a king on his throne

SFSU Graduate Commencement (2023)

Gorgeous Sr. and Gorgeous Jr. (Mom and Me) 

My baby brother’s UCR graduation a few weeks ago (he’s the tiniest bit taller than me) 

Cumulonimbus “Nimbus” Dabit (as a kitten) 

Cumulonimbus “Nimbus” Dabit (as a grown man) 

Me doing what I do best (explaining to EE staff and students how to fill out forms) 

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