Many of you will recall our shipmate Sahar Khan as a contributor to our GLOG in March sharing her experience at GAM's Moon On The Sail movie series in a blog entitled "eXistenZ is better with the Moon On Yer Sail." Sahar Khan served the CCNY community as Executive Vice President of the Undergraduate Student Government. Recently she was was heaped with awards and praise at the Student Affairs Leadership Awards Dinner. As the presenter noted, she is a Great American Mind.
Fired up by my intellectual curiosity, college allowed me to explore the different fields of academics. While completing a major in Media Communications & Arts, it was crucial for me to link the world of politics to the humanities. I thoroughly enjoyed taking a position in Undergraduate Student Government, presenting the multiverse theory to liberal art students and discussing current trends in public interest law. Learning how to use verbal skills, marketing and examining politics and media literature further reassured my interdisciplinary studious pursuits.
Sahar Khan is headed for law school. As part of GAM's summer series, we share her law school entry essay.
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| Sahar Khan, Awardee, May 20, 2011 (second from right) |
Following my aspirations in high school, I joined an organization called Women In Islam. This organization advocates to correct the unstable life styles of women who reside in Queens, New York. Working with these women and recording their tragic histories helped me overcome my apprehension. Nothing felt better than assisting members of an underprivileged community achieve the level of legal care they deserved. Starting college, I kept in touch with the legal aid community by training as a translator for the Women In Islam legal aid. While my time with them was limited, I used my ability to communicate clearly during any emergency.
Fired up by my intellectual curiosity, college allowed me to explore the different fields of academics. While completing a major in Media Communications & Arts, it was crucial for me to link the world of politics to the humanities. I thoroughly enjoyed taking a position in Undergraduate Student Government, presenting the multiverse theory to liberal art students and discussing current trends in public interest law. Learning how to use verbal skills, marketing and examining politics and media literature further reassured my interdisciplinary studious pursuits.My dedication to law was tested after joining the Skadden Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies at The City College of New York. I remember one semester in this vigorous program, my professor said, "Sahar, you might want to consider a different profession." Closing my eyes, the advisor's words endlessly replayed while I sank deeper into the gap of the couch. My early experiences in mock trial and the images of suffering women burned into my eyes and the feeling of powerlessness came rushing back. This setback did not cause me to digress from my goal of becoming a humanitarian. From then on, I directed myself and slowly learned how to study harder.
Studying through college, advertising courses were always captivating and during law seminars I was amazed at how the law system works. There has never been a class that I have not enjoyed and I anxiously await the integration of more knowledge in law school. The Skadden seminars, taught by Yale Law School graduate, Professor Lynda Dodd helped me learn the value of evidence-based cases and understand how legal research could be applied in clinical practice.
By my senior year, I needed to revisit the courtroom to ascertain the legal maturity essential to be an efficient lawyer as a first year law student. I gained this knowledge through my internship at Queens County Courthouse in the summer of 2010. Collecting clinical research data in the Queens County Courthouse brought me back to the misery of women, when their children faced emotional trouble due to the unstable environment they lived in. No words could express my emotions when a woman lost everything. At the same time, I knew that the lawyers did their best to do the most for their clients.
Gradually, I grew to be comfortable in the courthouse setting and became familiar with many of the lawyers and judges. Communicating with the layers, many of my fiery questions were answered, such as the role of the judge in different types of courtrooms. The courthouse soon became a learning ground where I could not only be a curious student but also a teacher. Becoming a mentor for the second cohort of the Skadden program, I enjoyed advising the students how to achieve their research goals.
The result of all of my experiences in academia and various courthouses has made me recognize that there is only one profession that encompasses my intrinsic desire to help others and my enduring love of learning. Working with lawyers and judges is invigorating and provides me with a unique sense of fulfillment every time I leave the courtroom. Having tested my dedication to the field, I have never felt more motivated towards pursuing a law degree. I am no longer a trembling powerless girl, but a woman filled with potential, ready to be the best lawyer I can be.
I am a multi-faceted individual: a daughter, a sister, a student; but my identity describes me to be a Pakistani Muslim. Muslim women have had the strongest impact on my life and aspirations. I was born in Dubai and arrived in the United States when I was two years old. Growing up in poverty helped me value the inner qualities that nobody can take away from me. As a Muslim woman, I was determined to grow beyond the traditional roles that my culture laid out for me. By obtaining a law degree, I will find a way to make possible the progress of other under-represented people. I want to be a symbolic figure for all Pakistani women. I hope to show them that they can be more than mothers and wives.
I came to see that women had very limited opportunities in the Pakistani community. In Pakistani culture, women are only portrayed as daughters, sisters, wives, and then mothers. I do not mean to undermine the roles that women play in society, but I want to have as many doors of opportunity opened for me as a man might have. I have seen how my parents distinguished between their daughter and son. They rarely hold high expectations of women, and are not attentive of them to pursue higher education and work beside men. My parents constantly tell me, “You are a woman and you do not need a great deal of education. Your husband will provide for you.”
I gathered the strength to respond that just because I am a woman does not mean that I cannot succeed in life. I have tried to be the best daughter and sister, and I am sure I will do just as well when I become a wife and a mother. Nonetheless, I want to have something of my own. My parents are coming to terms with my ambitions now, since I am coming up on graduating college.
In addition, I was fortunate to have the chance to show everyone that I have the potential to accomplish the aspirations I have set for myself. I have taken each challenge and worked out a coherent plan to prevail. I had to break the English language barrier because, even though I am a fluent English speaker, I speak many different languages and my fluency in them has put me to the test particularly with respect to developing strong writing skills in English. I have never been fearful to face the unknown, but people’s beliefs and assumptions about me as a Muslim woman here in the United States mean I always feel like I need to do a little extra to show I am capable.
I want to conquer my dreams. I want to take a position and tell the world that I have accomplished my own success because I was determined and hard working. By achieving a law degree, I would not be only completing my dream, but I will be taking a step onward to help my community. Many of the women in Islam do not have the courage to fight against the injustice done to them. I would like to become the voice for such women and battle against such factors in my community. The women in my community are conditioned to be introverts, and not all have the strength to speak against the wrong. Some may be immigrants, and may not speak English, or have other concerns and questions about the legal system. It is important for such a community to be represented, and I would like to be that person.
I will be proud to tell the people around me, who doubted that a woman could go so far, that I have done it. I will take the extra mile to prove myself and I am proud to take this journey diligently with a purpose.
Sahar Khan
College Graduate
Law School Bound
My early experiences of reading domestic violence cases during high school left me with a feeling of powerlessness. The stories, voices of women suffering with pain and rape, stay with me like a film covering my eyes. Being unable to read the stories about such insanity of women all around me was immobilizing. Watching how compassionately lawyers comforted their clients and discussed their past, present and future helped me handle my erupting emotions. It was then that my concern transformed into a passionate desire to help others in need.
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