Interesting facts about Aida
Spoke her first words when she was four months old
Aida has wanted to be a CEO since she was three years old
Learned to read at the age of 4
She started keeping ideas for business inventions in an idea binder at the age of four
These ideas included peanut butter and jelly that squirted from the same tube to make it easier for children to prepare their own sandwiches and a robot parent that would substitute for her father at work so he could stay home and play with her-
Learned to swim at the age of 5; considered becoming a competitive swimmer, winning races in Malaysia
Started to keep a journal at the age of 7 while still in elementary school
Read poetry by Emily Dickinson for the first time at age 8. Got more heavily into reading Emily Dickinson as a teenager. Knew she would want to be a poet by age 9
Started coming up with fashion sketches and invention ideas at age 9
Wrote poetry for the first time at age 9. However, her first serious, deep poetry writing began at age 12
Learned to play the bass guitar at the age of 9; this helped her with songwriting inspiration
Learned HTML, CSS, and Java at the age of 9, but got more serious about it at age 10
Aida saw Liz Murray on The Oprah Winfrey Show when she was 11 years old and that inspired her to turn her life around. She asked her Mom to purchase the DVD "Homeless to Harvard" and it radically shifted her self-image
Aida visited Bosnia when she was 11 years old for the first time since she escaped the genocide as a toddler at age 2. She cried profusely when she saw some of the buildings split in half. People had no privacy. She could see inside the buildings. She felt like she was ungrateful for everything that she had. Aida could see people shower and eat because they had walls only from one side of the building. She also saw Sarajevo Roses throughout the city which inspired her to view art as a powerful mechanism for activism
Was a State Finalist in the 2003 Miss Michigan Pre-Teen Pageant (National American Miss). When they lived in Paris, Aida's mother thought of helping her daughter try her hand at modeling
Her high school math teacher showed the movie "Stand and Deliver" to the entire class and the movie convinced her of the power of education to free the mind and sculpt the world
Entered the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards as a 15 year old
Did not attend her college graduation ceremony, and had her diploma directly mailed to her
Researched venture capital firms at age 15, going to libraries and the Library of Congress in her free time to read books other students didn't read to think in divergent ways
Met Duchess Sarah Ferguson at the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and the meeting inspired Aida to write a book someday
Aida was 19 years old when she came up with the idea for her company, Searchkey
While studying at the University of Michigan, she proposed Searchkey as a class project
Met the daughter of one of the female students from The Little Rock Nine when she was in the Global Understanding class through the Global Scholars Program at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and that had a big influence on her as a writer and activist
Met Howard Zinn while still in high school. She read "The People's History of the United States" as a teenager. He inspired her to write about social injustice
Met and befriended the granddaughter of Samuel R. Harris (Szlamek Rzeznik) who survived the Holocaust. He wrote a book called "Sammy: Child Survivor of the Holocaust" about his experiences
Aida is an avid doll collector
She was a martial arts student and practiced Shōrinji-ryū
Aida knows the lyrics to "Vojnik Sreće" ("Soldier of Fortune") by Dino Merlin by heart and believes that every soldier in the music video deserves their name to never be forgotten. Aida is also a huge fan of the songs “Ponesi Zastavu, Dragan Vikić” ("Carry the flag, Dragan Vikić) and Grbavica by Tifa and Mojoj Dragoj BiH ("To My dear Bosnia and Herzegovina") by Drugi Način
Aida was born in the year of the Metal Horse according to the Chinese zodiac. She was also born in the hour of the horse. According to the Chinese zodiac, she is headstrong, straightforward, and fierce
Aida's name has multiple meanings in different languages including Arabic, Latin, Swahili, Persian, and Turkish. Her name means "helper", "helpful", "distinguished", "treasure", "happy", "returning", "reward", "present", "advantage", "visitor of the sick", "inside the moon", "angel of love", "noble", and "beautiful". Verdi’s opera bears the same name, and is an epic classic tale of love, loyalty, betrayal and courage. It tells of the love triangle between Aida, a Nubian princess stolen from her country, Amneris, an Egyptian princess, and Radames, the soldier they both love. It’s an intriguing tale of an Ethiopian princess held captive in Egypt
She was a Business Division Team Member for the University of Michigan Solar Car Team