About me
Shaily (shy-lee) Hakimian.
I engage my students, social media followers, event attendees, and audiences.
As a strategically opinionated first-generation American of Moroccan and Iranian heritage, I feel like it's my duty to push as hard as I can in life to make my parents proud after all the sacrifices they made to come to Chicago.
I work in social media and teaching. I earned my teaching degree from Indiana University and have used my skills in various capacities including in facilitating my own workshop and in incorporating technology into the classroom.
I am a live streaming enthusiast and have been on Periscope since the beginning. I get people to #DEBATE juicy topics with me from current events to social politics.
I am looking to share my personality and positive energy with others. Everything I do both online and off is based on engagement. I am all about building relationships with students, professionals, friends both online, offline, and beyond. I also love to introduce good people to other good people. I look for the win win win opportunities to connect others.
Things I love: Icebreakers, getting people to hash out their differences, live streaming on Periscope and beyond, magic, motivating kiddos in school in math and beyond, educational technologies especially with an iPad, building relationships with people I find talented and brilliant, getting to the core of people's problems, talking about "diversity" and how to make it a win win win, Twitter and its networking capabilities, answering questions about what it's like to be Jewish, and beyond.
My network ranges from: HR/Recruiting, Jewish communal workers, Magicians, LGBT+ Activists, Improvisors/Comedians, Jews from a range of backgrounds, Reality Competition Show Enthusiasts, Tech, Jewelers, Wekiki-ers, friends who can range from liberal to conservative, other extreme networkers, matchmakers, and beyond.
Connecting with people and figuring out what they care about is my passion. So let me ask you, what's your adventure?
Fun stuff you didn't know I was a part of...
Only a select few people know about the fun stuff I participate in. I like to see who in the world hears what I do before I ever tell them about it. The same goes for this website *wink*
Open Heart Magic - I perform bedside magic for the children at Comer Hospital at the University Of Chicago medical system in Hyde Park.
I am a full member of the Chicago Magic Lounge
When I was 17, I hosted Stevenson High School's Talent show in front of 400 people. Of the 4 pairs of emcees, no one expected our duo to be the funniest of them all. We even beat out the very popular class clown.
When I was 17, I coordinated a high school bake sale to raise money for a youth group I had grown to love. By the end, I was able to send $2,200 to the organization to thank the mentor who welcomed me into the group in the first place. I was published in a printed newsletter.
in 2013, I hosted a comedy festival in my college town of Bloomington, Indiana. We were standing room only breaking upwards of 100+ people. The press was glorious.
Also in 2013, I successfully did stand-up comedy at an open mic in Bloomington, Indiana where people laughed at every joke I shared.
I am a regular at an annual worldwide event made popular by Improv Everywhere. You have to google around to find out what crazy stunts I have pulled. I also got on the global Snapchat story for this event.
I once got tens of thousands of views on my Snaphat story that was later rebroadcasted on local Chicago television.
Cool people I have met: Chaz Bono, Michael Carbonaro, Joan Rivers (rip), Laverne Cox, Amy Schumer (but she was really awful), Natasha Leggero, various contestants from the shows Big Brother and Survivor, and more. I stopped taking pictures of people when I realized how much it turns famous people into objects. It stops these people from being real people and I imagine that sucks.
People I have seen IRL: Torri Spelling, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Colbert, Bill & Chelsea Clinton, and more.
I got my Tweets liked by Elon Musk's brother!
I was mentioned on the show Big Brother's live feeds by a contestant I met.
I was on a Netflix show and wrote about it on Medium.
I was flown out 4+ times to Washington, DC to lobby on behalf of 2 education-related organizations.
I student-taught in Melbourne, Australia. One of the best stories to come from my trip was about a student who behaved a bit different than his classmates that was constantly being yelled at by all his teachers. Harrison would constantly interrupt his teachers with irrelevant questions and noise. I knew that he didn't know what to do as a result of the discipline his teachers would give him. I knew that this was all hurting him. He already didn't have a lot of friends. I saw a lot of my childhood self in him and built a relationship with him. I was patient. I listened to him and let him have a notebook he had been eyeing. Eventually, I would be his sort of social translator that lead to improved behavior. I did not think much of this until my last day at the school when his mom came up to me and shared that he was coming home every day from school telling her about me. She gave me a tiny book that was made to give to the best teachers. Safe to say I was crying that whole afternoon.
Another funny cute teaching moment was when a student who was missing a hand came up to me to tell me about it. She basically wanted to acknowledge it. I thought it was nice of her to be open about it. It was my response that has me still laughing and learning today. I asked her can she still read like everyone else? She said yes. She was easily the best reader in the class. Can you run like everyone else? She said yes. Basically, I asked her if she could do everything like everyone else and she said yes. Then I told her "that just means that everyone else has a spare hand." She looked at me like I had just blown her mind. I use variations of this in my life to remind myself to appreciate what I have and knowing I have the ability to adapt myself to physical challenges that may come up in the future.
...and more.
