Hi, my name is Humaira Jackson (Ahmad). I would love to share a little about myself. I was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and am the eldest of two daughters. My parents came to Canada, as immigrants from Pakistan one year before I was born. I grew up in multi-lingual and multi-ethnic community where everyone or their parents came from every corner of the globe. Growing up, I spoke Urdu at home and English and French everywhere else.
After moving from Canada, I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for five years. I had a great opportunity working in mortgage banking and later at the Federal Reserve in San Francisco.
Since moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1997 my family has grown to our current Jackson 5. I love the Seattle area and really feel that this is home.
I have been teaching at Bellevue College (then it was BCC) since 2002. Teaching and learning (I am always learning too) is what I love to do. My goal is to introduce students to a field that gives them real skills, as well as the intellectual rewards that comes from thinking about solutions to both personal, community and global issues. Student passion and interest to know more is the best motivation. Hard work is the path to get there. The grade will naturally come. I fully expect and believe that every student who walks into my class or logs in virtually on the first day has the potential for complete success by the end of the quarter. I like to bring current issues into the classroom. I encourage all my students to view their decisions (in school, work and life) through an economic lens. Students write papers in my classes that center around current issues using a selection of journalistic sources along with their required texts. After a class with me, I hope that reading the Wall Street Journal or The Economist magazine will be more interesting, accessible and enjoyable! I encourage students to keep up with current economic issues through journaling, presentations and/or class discussion.
I teach Econ 100, 201, & 202 both on campus and online. I have also taught two special IDS classes, Size Matters: international economic & environmental issues, and Show Me the Money: the commercialization and culture of sports in America. We hope to offer the latter again soon in conjunction with sociology. As a social science, economics complements many fields but psychology, sociology, history & political science also help us better understand our economy. I am also interested in economies of developing and newly emerging nations and hope to incorporate those topics in new or existing classes soon.
My other loves are reading fiction (I devour books!), independent & foreign films and long distance running. I also love to travel and have visited every continent, except for Antarctica! I have quite a few countries yet to check off my list but that is something I have to look forward to.
I can’t wait to meet you. I sincerely hope you will join me for a class in the near future!
Humaira Jackson