The advisor to the Society of Independent Persian Students, Dr. Mehdi Saiidi, has been a key and influential component in helping our club grow and prosper. From the moments of creation of our constitution to the biggest event in our club’s history, Dr. Saiidi has been there to not only provide positive feedback to the club he advises, but also encouragement. When I first presented him with our constitution, he was very diligent in reading it over and providing immediate feedback and suggestions on what was good and what we could improve on. He is on our list serve and frequently provides input about events we are having, and he has always been there to answer any questions that we have had for him. Some of these questions have been about how to handle certain leadership obligations. He has been in leadership positions for longer than our members have been alive and his feedback on my job as President has been critical to my success. Several times he has sent emails to all our club members about how well we are doing and to keep on striving to be better. When we had the biggest meeting in our history the week before our 2nd community cookout and Night of All Nations, he came in person to help us out with the planning process and made sure we hadn’t overlooked any flaws. He did this, not in a visible manner, but as one watching silently from the side, stating his case when needed. He was also there on the biggest day in our history, during our recent community cookout, making sure things were running smoothly for me and the rest of the club and offered his helping hand several times. He even became our camera man for the day!
In conclusion, Dr. Saiidi has provided everything we could ask for in an advisor. He has maintained a perfect balance by providing enough feedback to help our club prosper, while maintaining a careful distance, so as not to control our actions and has been there for us whenever we have asked him to.
Thank you for your time and I hope you will consider him for this award.
Sincerely,
Dustin Saiidi
President
Society of Independent Persian Students
(Yes, he is my dad, but what I have said is from the opinion of me as President, not as his son ? Thanks)