Simale Kadir joined the University’s National Association of Black Accountants chapter mostly because it was another club to join—not because of any overriding passion for accounting, which she saw as a white man’s occupation, not a Muslim woman’s. But joining the NABA chapter resulted in her interest soaring.
“Not even a semester into it I was like, yeah, I want to do accounting,” said Kadir, who today is president of the University’s NABA chapter. “I don’t know how to describe it, because it wasn’t like I felt out of place. I’ve always been that person who blends into any situation I go in. But for some reason when I joined NABA it was like the holy grail. I found the thing that makes me feel like me.”
Kadir is a Kenya native whose family moved to the United States—Eden Prairie, Minnesota, specifically—when she was in fifth grade. It was during high school that she did homework in addition to home work, both of which made an easy transition to college.
“My parents gave me responsibilities,” she said. “One of those was the bills that came to the house: gas, water, electric. … I didn’t have to worry about the money, but I had to make sure I stayed on top of the deadlines.”
Her father had started a small trucking company, and while helping him with bills she became curious about tax law— something she said many in the immigrant community find too intimidating and thus miss various deductions, etc.
“I took business classes in high school,” she said, “and one of the classes was money management, so I came home and said: ’I can do your taxes from now on.’ I started getting interested, watching YouTube videos about how taxes work. I wanted to know more.”
Enrolling at Minnesota State Mankato in 2019, she found the transition to business classes a smooth one and took advantage of every opportunity to get involved in various clubs. It was NABA, she said, where she met others with comparable stories, ambitions and strategies.
“Coming into NABA and seeing people like me, black students, doing something that I’d been looking into but didn’t think was possible for me,” she said. “Learning more about their journey. They’re telling me about their internships and the jobs they’re going to have. I picked their minds about everything.”
Already aligned with an internship with Deloitte, the nation’s top accounting firm, Kadir as president wants to open up the club to all disciplines while easing any apprehension.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people who in high school were scared to go to college because they felt like they didn’t belong or they wouldn’t find their spot,” she said. “I want them to feel like there is somewhere they can belong to.”
She hopes to provide to students what NABA provided her—friends who can help.
“It’s not hard to find the resources on campus, because you can just look it up,” she said. “But when a friend is telling you from their own experiences, it’s a very different connection you make.”
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