Sanaa Desper Finds Education Beyond the Classroom

For Sanaa Desper, attending CCP is much more than just showing up in the classroom. She’s taken full advantage of the boundless opportunities that exist here for students. Sanaa, a Photography major, works as a student social media content creator in the College’s Strategic Communications office, participated in a summer study abroad trip to Ghana and worked in an internship role at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She’s accomplished all of this before even starting her second year at CCP.

All of these opportunities, and coming to CCP in general, have affected Sanaa’s perspective on life and the world. She sees the connection between each of these experiences and how they all add to her education, helping her learn and grow into the next version of herself. “When I think of studying abroad and taking a leap for the content position,” Sanaa said, “I think it really helped me grow into that sense where I am starting to discover what I'm passionate about and the things that I enjoy and what I want to try.”

Sanaa is also starting to realize the impact she has on others and how these experiences allow her to make a difference for her peers and the rest of the campus community. “It's really opening a lot of doors and allowing me to think about what I want to do just in general, but also the ways in which I can impact people on any level,” Sanaa said. Since her role as a student content creator on campus is so forward-facing, students frequently recognize her from the videos she creates, and she loves that she can connect with her peers in this way.

Sanaa also enjoyed forming new connections on the Ghana trip. “I had an amazing experience,” Sanaa said. “A lot of us were so sad [to leave]. We're like, ‘we wish we could stay!’ We're already plotting our five-year reunion.” Sanaa said that one of her favorite parts of the trip was communing over dinner with her peers and their professors at the end of each day. Their group even started their own routine of writing and sharing haiku poems with each other each evening. She said it was a beautiful way to reflect on the day, what they learned and the emotional impact of the study abroad experience. “The best way I could explain it was just like I feel like a different person. Like it was just transformative in so many ways,” Sanaa said about her experience studying abroad. “Just in the way that I think and the way that I now want to learn.”

Once returning from Ghana, Sanaa immediately began working as an intern at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “I worked specifically with the editorial graphic design team, and the majority of the work that I did was with editorial projects,” she said. Sanaa noted how exciting it was to see all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into opening an exhibition and all the people it takes to make it happen. She also made great connections with other people at the museum. “I had the opportunity to meet with the PMA's content team, and they were asking how I got to my [student content creator] role at CCP,” Sanaa said.

Through all of her hard work, Sanaa is setting herself up for success and finding exactly what it is she wants to pour her passion into.  

Keep an eye out for Sanaa on our social media pages this fall!