UPDATED: April 26, 2017 at 2:20 p.m.

As he skipped out of the elevator at Link Hall and began his walk to Marshall Street, Shazif Shaikh greeted and exchanged conversation with four different people in the span of four minutes.

“Hey Shazif!”

“Can you take me to Destiny tomorrow?”

“Hey Shazif, can I steal you for a hot sec?”

“Is that ice cream for me?”

If an acquaintance is in the vicinity, Shaikh’s enthusiasm to say “hello” and tendency to jump into conversation is endless. He stops in his tracks and asks about their day all in one big rush. The words can’t wait to get out of his mouth.

It’s the norm in Shaikh’s life. Inevitably when he goes about his day on the Syracuse University campus, people recognize his small frame and generous beard. Shahid Sheikh, his father, said this has always been the case.

“Wherever he has been, I think people remember him,” Sheikh said. “Whenever I meet his teachers, they remember his name. Wherever his siblings go, people there mention Shazif’s name. His name is synonymous with respect, I think.”

Shaikh is a sophomore aerospace engineering major. With his demanding workload, his role as a resident adviser in Day Hall and president of the SU chapter of Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, SASE, Shaikh is lucky if he snatches more than four or five hours of sleep in a night.

“It’s something that’s particular to all engineering students,” Shaikh said. “You pull any engineer off the street and they’ll tell you, ‘four hours is a blessing.’ Between that and trying to relax a little, too, there’s little time for sleep.”

But it’s nothing new for him. Shaikh has been pushing himself from a very young age. Through his middle school and high school years as a top student at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, he got up every day at 6 a.m. and came back from school by 5 p.m. only to finish the rest of his schoolwork through the rest of the night.

Shaikh’s energy has always spilled into activities beyond the classroom. He volunteered at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City, supervised robotic construction standards and social media at a nonprofit organization and taught robotics to college students at York College — all while still a junior in high school. Nobody knew how young he was until his robotics team won and his mother ran onto the stage and hugged him.

His extracurricular activities in high school foreshadowed his heavy involvement in multiple activities in his college career as well. Shaikh’s met one of his best friends, Justine Kwok, a sophomore electrical engineering major, with the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers.

As a freshman representative of SASE, Shaikh immediately reached out to everyone in the organization, introduced them to each other and made sure everyone, like Kwok, remained involved and was enjoying themselves. Kwok believes his strive for inclusivity is a symbol of Syracuse spirit.

“The reason I was attracted to Syracuse was because of the student life — I wanted to be in different groups and organizations,” she said. “Here, it is all about school spirit and about inclusiveness. Shazif fits into that because he makes sure everyone is one big family.”

Shaikh prides himself on creating that family atmosphere. His nomination for the end of the year resident adviser awards reassure him that he is doing something right.

“I like potential and I like unlocking that potential,” Shaikh said. “I feel like freshmen needed guidance and I wanted to be that guiding force. Now I feel like they are more ready, they know the tips and tricks of navigating the university and they’re better people.”

When he’s not buddying up with his residents in Day Hall or pulling all nighters in “Club” E.S. Bird Library, Shaikh is working towards making campus more inclusive, starting with his goals for SASE and broadening its reach on the SU campus.

Shaikh’s ultimate goal is running for Student Association president. But he doesn’t want to wait for a successful election to start making waves.

“Change doesn’t start when you’re in a position of power, change starts when someone has an idea they want to execute,” he said. “Change is good for the soul.”

For now, by forging partnerships with the Multicultural Greek Council, the Korean Student Association, the Asian Students in America and the Muslim Students’ Association, Shaikh wants to bridge the gaps he sees in the science community on campus.

This continuous expansion of networks receives praise and attention from faculty like Professor Young Bai Moon, the department chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the faculty advisor for SASE.

Shaikh diligently stops by Moon’s office, informing him of events the organization has planned and how things are faring with SASE.

“He is very efficient in connecting people and promoting what SASE’s doing,” Moon said. “The spirit I sense in him is very high, he is always cheerful.”

Engineering students involved with SASE have an extremely strict curriculum alongside planning activities like the faculty-student mixers and career workshops, and they still have to maintain top-notch academic performance.

Some students can get down because of that stress, Moon said, and Shaikh’s cheeriness always comes in handy to lift their spirits.

“He’s supporting himself, putting himself forward, he stands out, he does all the work behind the scenes,” he said. “It’s exemplary.”

Every day Shaikh is inspired by his parents and one particularly Orange member of the SU community — Otto the Orange.

Shaikh loves the fact that anyone could be in the Otto suit and admires the mascot’s ability to inspire and motivate everyone he meets.

“Giving back to the community, and preparing the people who are in it — I think that’s the Syracuse spirit,” Shaikh said.

Although he is not tall enough to don the Otto suit himself, Shaikh would like to embody the rest of the mascot’s qualities. Otto connects with everyone he meets — like Shaikh himself, who started a planking competition with Otto at the Relay for Life event on April 21.

Close to the day’s end, Shaikh sat cross-legged on the turf at Manley Fieldhouse, planning to stay a few more hours at Relay for Life, even though he had been up and about since 8 a.m. Undeterred and still energetic, he played a lively card game with two friends.

He lost four times in a row, but the smile and laughter never left his face.

Banner photo by Frankie Prijatel | Staff Photographer

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the number of hours Shazif Shaikh sleeps per week was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on April 25, 2017 at 11:53 pm

Contact: dmurthy@syr.edu