Volunteer Spotlight: Nadya Saidy
When Nadya was in high school, she didn’t feel like she fit in with everyone else. A year younger than most kids in her class, she often felt awkward and out of place. On top of that, being Lebanese and Arab made her a target for ignorant questions—“Is your father a terrorist?”—that only deepened her sense of isolation. At age 11, she lost her father to pancreatic cancer. The weight of that loss shook her world and made navigating high school even harder. Hearing a story from a relatable role model might have made a difference.
Today, Nadya is a businesswoman and co-owner of Adele’s of Hollywood, a costume store that has served the community since 1945. And in her free time, she does for students what she once wished for herself––she shares her story every year as a PLUS ME volunteer, motivating young people and reminding them they’re not alone.
Nadya learned about the PLUS ME Project and wanted to be involved with helping students tell their stories. She became a donor, but something pulled her to do more: “At first, I would just donate, but then I asked myself, How can I be a bigger part of this?” She learned that she could volunteer by sharing her story with students. But there was hesitation.
“Everyone kept telling me I have a story and I kept saying, ‘No, I don’t.’ But, I finally sat down in one of the onboarding sessions where PLUS ME sent me a journal, and I said, Okay, I’m going to give this a try. I wrote my story and submitted it.”
There were hurdles in the writing process. She wrestled with questions: Do I want to share this with anyone? No one else knows this except me. Will it even make sense? Will it flow? But reflecting on her experiences through the PLUS ME storytelling framework helped. She worked through her doubts and shaped her story, piece by piece.
When the day came to share it in a high school classroom, she didn’t know what to expect. But what she did know was what it felt like to sit in their place––unsure if her story mattered, wishing she felt less alone. After sharing her story, she felt something that stayed with her long after she walked out of that classroom.
“It makes me feel good. It touches the heart,” she said. “I feel like I’ve done something to help somebody—some student who might be going through what I went through. It’s probably harder now, a different time. Things have changed. But if I can help someone, I’m on board.”
The students’ questions stood out the most. She could tell they weren’t just listening. They were connecting, reflecting, thinking about their own lives. “You want what you’re saying to resonate,” she said. “To have them respond with a question that you can answer because it’s touched them somehow—that’s one of the most important things for me.”
For a long time, Nadya didn’t believe her story was worth telling. She came from a middle-class family and hadn’t seen her experiences as extraordinary. But as she spoke to students, she realized how much power there was in simply being honest about her experience.
She leaves us with this: “We all have a story to tell. And you never know who it’s going to help. Even if you can relate to that one person, to have one student say, Hey, I felt that before, and look at her. We can overcome it, strive and do better. That matters. It can feel intimidating, even scary at first. But go for it. You have nothing to lose. You will only gain such pride and happiness from being able to reach a young person with your story.”
Click here to join Nadya this Motivational March and share your story with a student who needs to hear it.