A Blazing Light
Senior drilling engineer Shereen Yusuff serves as a role model for girls BY TASKEEN ALI KHAN
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f asked about the most influential people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers, most girls would probably list Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs among the top. As yet, women don’t dominate STEM careers, but they are making successful inroads. One woman who has proven herself to be exceptional in this field is 29-year-old Shereen Yusuff, who graduated as an aerospace engineer and today works as a senior engineer in the oil and gas industry. In 2013, Strathmore’s Who’s Who Worldwide listed Yusuff as a Professional of the Year in her field. An Indian immigrant, born and raised in Oman, Yusuff currently works in the United States. She is an accomplished athlete, student, and has broken barriers choosing to work as an engineer on oil rigs in India, China, U.S. and Brazil, in a field occupied by mostly men.
WOMAN IN A MAN’S WORLD Starting with her acceptance at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur’s highly selective engineering school, Yusuff was a woman competing in a man’s world. Her chosen field, aerospace engineering, was male dominated. Though outnumbered, she stood out, graduating in the top five percent of her department. In 2005, she topped more than 500 internship applicants to get hired by Schlumberger, the international oil and gas company. After her training in China, Schlumberger gave her a pre-placement offer to continue with them. Thus began her journey in the oil and gas industry. Yusuff did more
than stand out — she climbed the corporate ladder with astonishing speed and became a senior drilling engineer at a young age. “I worked on offshore deepwater rigs as a field engineer for three years – mostly in Mumbai, China, and the Gulf of Mexico,” Yusuff said. “I got a double promotion and at the age of 24, became the youngest manager at the time and worked in Louisiana for two years from 2008 to 2010.” Yusuff went on to become a drilling manager managing multiple projects in Brazil and is now in Houston with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation as a senior drilling engineer.
IT STARTS WITH THE FAMILY Yusuff credits her parents for instilling a sense of dedication in her. “I was raised in a culture where girls did not get the needed support simply because it was not the norm for girls to achieve academically or professionally,” she said. “Luckily, my parents decided to go against the norm and supported me through my endeavors. As the years went by, and I left home, and I didn’t have the support of my family anymore, it seemed to get harder and harder, simply because of all the preset rules. Nonetheless, I have always chosen the path less travelled, faced hardships and come out stronger.” Yusuff continues to embody this motto in her athletics. “It began in Muscat, Oman, with my love of tennis,” she said. By the age of 10, Yusuff was number one in Oman as a Under-14 and UnderW-16, and a year later claimed the distinction of being number one in every category she was eligible for. “Before graduating university, I won the Bhandarkar Cup, which is given to the
ISLAMIC HORIZONS MARCH/APRIL 2014
sportsperson of the year,” Yusuff said. “I am only the second female to have achieved the distinction since 1951, when IIT Kharagpur opened its doors.” Yusuff never let work overshadow her athletic interests. She makes sure to find time for hiking and Capoeira, a martial art she was introduced to in Brazil. “I learned to do hikes that usually require three to five days in 11 to 13 hours. I still hike to this day, and have started doing multiple excursion day hikes,” she said. In 2009, Yusuff participated in her first running event, a half marathon in New Orleans and a marathon in Orange County, Calif. She competed in another marathon in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. Yusuff is the second Indian woman to have competed in the 2013 Ironman Texas. “I also love rock climbing, and when I am resting, reading and painting are my destressing agents,” she said. Yusuff said she strives to empower others with self-confidence and support, just the way her parents did with her. “I believe I am who I am because of the different cultures I have been exposed to having lived in Oman, India, China, U.S.A. and Brazil, books I have read, and for leaving room to be influenced by keeping an open mind yet maintaining my core values,” she said. “Almost all my life, I have chosen fields where women were a minority. However, I have never let this deter me. Focus, hard work, and dedication is all that is needed, and the constant negative force that comes from external factors needs to be zoned out. Some of us are lucky to have supportive people around us, while not all of us are as fortunate. However, with the right attitude, there is no limit to what you can achieve.”
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Taskeen Ali Khan is an award-winning writer based in the Chicago area.
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