Berkeley MBA Candidate and Social Entrepreneur Nadeem Farooqi, 27, Passes Away

It is with a heavy heart that we delivery some sad news today. We want to give you a moment to perhaps sit down before you read on.

We offer the very sad news that Nadeem Farooqi died on Friday night in his dorm in Berkeley, California where he was studying to get his MBA at UC Berkeley.

We've since been in contact with Nadeem’s closest friends, colleagues, and his family and felt it was important to communicate this to the world and the StartingBloc Community at this time, as he was an incredibly important and cherished member of the StartingBloc family and so many other's. He touched so many in this community with his bright smile and incredible heart.

As many of you know, Nadeem was an undeniably special person. He brightened the rooms that he entered and the lives that he touched, and he made so many of our days warm. He had a deep passion for making the world better and for serving the lives of those around him, always with a smile and a laugh.

Nadeem came to the StartingBloc community as a gifted social entrepreneur looking for answers to questions about identity and social justice. He wanted to find ways to use his incredible gifts and passions to better the world around him. He took the lessons he learned at StartingBloc and used them to truly make an impact on those in need of help and healing after the conference.

He was a gifted student at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California and a cherished colleague at the Advisory Board Company in Washington, DC and Health Care Partners in the Los Angeles Area, where he fought tirelessly to advance access to mental health services and medical care to those in need in the US and around the world.

Nadeem was someone who had a deep understanding of the complexities and challenges of every individual he impacted, and he knew exactly how to make things better even in light of the darkest and most challenging days.

He was an extraordinary connector and relationship builder. Whether you met him on the street or knew him really well, he had a way of making every person feel valued and cared for. He was the type of person who would dance with you if no one else was dancing with you and the one who would check in on you regularly to make sure you were okay. He may have not lived long enough to experience true love, to have kids of his own, or to grow old with his friends and peers, but the gifts and the lessons he taught each and every one of us will live on far beyond his shortened life.

We know that each and every person deals with pain and grief in their own ways, but we want you to know that the we and the whole of the StartingBloc community are here for you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to talk (to us, to other fellows, to anyone). It’s times like these when we all need to band together and stay strong to get through these dark days.

There will be a few channels through which you can connect, process, celebrate, and grieve Nadeem’s life:

If you have any photos that you would like to share with the family for his memorial service, please add them here.

If you know of any songs that Nadeem enjoyed that would also like to contribute, please drop them in this collaborative playlist

Nadeem was deeply passionate about helping those in need that suffered from mental health challenges, which is why Nadeem’s family will be establishing a foundation and launching a GoFundMe page on his behalf to raise money for organizations that support mental health awareness. We will be providing this link in the days and weeks to come and welcome anyone who feels moved to donate at your convenience.

Please also look out for invites for informal and formal zoom gatherings in the coming weeks and months to remember Nadeem’s life.

Above all, you can celebrate Nadeem’s memory most by loving one another, checking in on one another, and laughing with one another whether in tough times or good ones.

Nadeem may no longer be with us, but his spirit will forever live on in each and every one of us.

RIP Nadeem Farooqi (11/23/1993-12/05/2020)

With love,

Annika Erickson-Pearson, Jonathan Sherman, Lucky Sfor, and Anjana Sreedhar