An Ordinary Future Graduate, With an Extraordinary Time: Rua Dinm

Miabella Espaillat
Stillman News Editor

Rua Dinm is a multi-talented senior Seton Hall student graduating this semester. She is the Co-Editor in Chief for The Stillman Exchange and has accomplished remarkable achievements during her time here. I wanted to know her story, even though she insisted it wasn’t necessary. However, as an accomplished woman of color, friend, mentor & role model, I felt the need to highlight my favorite senior. Rua’s story starts in Bangladesh, where she was born. Her family moved to the United States when she was only 11 years old. She moved about 17 times in her life but attended high school in a small town outside of Philadelphia called Bensalem. Rua Dinm is a polyglot, speaking multiple languages like Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, English, and some French. Her hobbies have a range of interests that branch into her goals and aspirations today. Her hobbies and interests led her to her current place, alongside her fortitude, drive, and passion. She loves writing, beauty, and fashion.

Rua is majoring in marketing and has obtained a minor in International Diplomacy and Relations. Like many of us, Rua had changed her major multiple times during freshman year. She decided to go for what made her happy and what satisfied her own interests. Choosing those areas of beauty, fashion, and writing wasn’t easy. Nor was changing her major as she described being initially scared to do it. As cliche as it sounds, Rua Dinm did what most dreamt of, followed her heart, and did so with feverous passion & resilience.

I asked Rua why Marketing? Her answer: “I chose my major because I have an ultimate goal. I want to understand the industry. By talking to industry experts, mentors & peers, I knew that Marketing is where I wanted to start” She dreams of working in the fashion industry with a desire to better the lack of global diversity and regulation regarding garment workers’ lives. She wants better working conditions and environment for them. Her personal background provided her a deep insight into how brands used their words. Growing up in Bangladesh, she noticed how all these brands got their textiles from her country. She wasn’t a personal witness, but the mere story of a large fire in a garment factory shook her. She was thrown in and drove herself to dive deeper into sustainability and fashion. She’s aspiring to have her own line or simply work for a brand that does sustainable fashion. To Rua Dinm, it’s not about the materials; it’s where you’re getting and manufacturing it from.

As a Seton Hall attendee, I had to ask her why she decided to come to Seton Hall University. How did Seton Hall University get such prosperous future alumni? Her response was the number of opportunities she saw at SHU. She noted that Seton Hall University recognizes people’s hard work and talent. Their recognition helped her stay in school and qualify for scholarships, which helped her continue her education. Overall, she had great mentors, scholarships, and networking to carve her path. She also searched for and landed paid internships AND freelance work. Rua recalled how she wouldn’t be where she was without her advisor, mentor & favorite professor, Javier Farfan. The mentor and student relationship she developed with Professor Farfan exemplifies how far professors at Seton Hall go for their students. An amazing professor coupled with being tasked to guide an amazing student. The Stillman School of Business helped her feel heard. She felt guided and showed her next steps to be better.

Going back into the past, I had asked her what her first internship was, and it was an insightful answer and yet very relatable. Rua told me that Her first internship was in sales, but she declined the offer. She wanted to go home for the summer as it was the summer before sophomore year. However, the first internship she did accept was one right before the pandemic at Love Stories TV. “I stayed there for almost a year somehow was the only intern who wasn’t let go when things shut down.” This allowed Rua to venture into the company as she assisted different departments.

Currently, Rua is interning at a luxury resort wear line, Carlton Jones Collection, in New York City. She is a hybrid intern that does marketing and research for the brand. “Every day is different in my current role,” she noted. She’s tasked with anything related to marketing, analyzing, strategizing, logistics, finding fabrics, etc. Surprisingly, she’s also working as a traveling sales consultant for the Atlanta first agency. On the weekends, Rua is a stylist at Alba Boutique. Her student jobs include research assistant for Professor Farfan and working for the Stillman Exchange.

Another question I had thrown to her as if she had any regrets during her time at Seton Hall. She responded that she doesn’t have any regrets as everything happens for a reason. She’s in a better place for herself. She told me that all her mistakes and accomplishments were necessary for her professional and personal development. If she could go back, she would want to have more fun since she believed she took things too seriously. Yet, in the same breath, she said, “it’s a part of my story that helped me be who I am and get to where I am now.”

I ended my interview with a question that can be helpful to all: “What’s some advice you’d say to future students?” In Rua’s response, it was, in quotes, “Try everything. Often, people will tell you to be super focused, but it’s okay to try different things and know what you don’t want to do before you know what you DO want to do. When you decide on it, give it your all.”

As a graduating senior and integral part of the Stillman Exchange, she’s deserved the right to show how exemplary she’s been as a student, friend, co-worker, and mentor in her own right.

Contact Miabella at espailmi@shu.edu