Daniels Fund Essay

What current events are you concerned about or are you following? What are you doing about it now or what would you like to do about it in the future. 500 words.

After the 2016 election, I vowed to be a leader. I made sure that my voice as a Black, Muslim, Hijabi woman would not be silenced by the rhetoric spewing from the White House. I promised to use my voice for the voiceless and to stand up for the people that did not feel safe in this country. Refugee admissions has drastically dropped in the last couple of years. With the latest Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump's Muslim Ban. Immigration for 7 countries, Iran Syria, Yemen, Libya, Chad, North Korea, and Somalia will be stalled or restricted. I am a refugee from Somalia. If this ban was in place a decade ago I would not be here. We were the lucky ones with a redemption story. My family got out. Growing up here meant bomb explosions were not our lullabies and shell flashes were not our night lights. There are many things that need to be fixed in our country and all over the world when it comes to refugee relocation. We cannot fix these issues if we let stereotypes and fear label different individuals and create tension. The rhetoric that all immigrants are “job stealing criminals and rapist” and that all refugees are “terrorist in the making” is an unjust generalization of a diverse group. Day after day I would turn on the news to see the direction of hate and horror that my country was headed towards. It was after the travel ban that I pledged: enough was enough. My peers and I decided to host a Refugee march at the Utah Capitol. There are many things that go into making an event run smoothly and we had to pay attention to the small details. On top of working on the logistics of the event––like the venue, security, fundraising and more––I was in

charge of finding speakers and getting the word out. With only a couple of weeks of preparation, seven high school kids organized one of the largest recorded demonstrations in Utah’s history. It wasn’t an easy feat: there was lots of adversity we had to overcome. People told us we were “just kids” whose voices didn’t matter. But as a sea of young leaders, we marched, and we proved them wrong. Although Somalia is on the travel ban and is said to be a “terrorist” filled country, my family did not come here to cause destruction. My mother came here for the opportunities of life, liberty, EDUCATION, and the pursuit of happiness. She worked her life away to give us the opportunities she dreamed of having for herself and I will work my life away to make her proud. I believe that this world was based and still is based on immigration, and we must strive to make it a safe world for all.

Why do you think some people aren’t successful? 500 words. As a young kid, I saw two different types of people in my family, the “successful” ones and the “unsuccessful” ones. Some of the successful ones had two maybe three degrees with careers that paid them extremely well. The latter were high school or college dropouts that worked regular jobs with no higher-ed degrees. While one group was labeled as “accomplished” the others were called “lazy failures.” I never understood this concept. Who gives one the power to judge another on their ability to be successful? What does “success” even look like? Often times when people think of success they think of materialistic items. How big is my car? Can I afford to take my family to Paris this summer? Will I be able to get that extension in my kitchen? The word success has been driven not by morals but by dollar signs. When my family came to America my mother took on a job as a housekeeper. Although it was a blue collar job, and she was looked down upon, she did it to survive. She worked days and nights just to provide food for my siblings and I. My mother was successful; not because she had triple digits in her bank account but because she was determined to make her children's life better. She could’ve easily sat back and watched the bills pile up but she dived in head first. If things got hard and adversity was knocking on her door; my mother worked harder and faster. Strength is worth more than a million dollars could ever. When you stop trying and let failure get the best of you; you are unsuccessful. When you give up without looking for other ways to triumph; you are unsuccessful. When you let fear and money determine your fate; you are unsuccessful. Everyone has the opportunity to succeed if they work hard enough.

Over a lifetime, workers today can expect to experience different kinds of jobs or even careers. How do you want your college education to prepare you for this possibility. Consider your own interest, talents, and personal strengths. Explain how your education will help you adapt to an ever-changing workplace. 500 words. Since the moment I knew what I lawyer was, I knew that was what I wanted to be. This has never wavered my whole life. When teachers or strangers I met ask me the inevitable question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, without a moment of hesitation, I would reply “Lawyer!” This freaked some people out because I was so determined to be a lawyer when other kids my age were saying astronaut one day and vet another. As a child, my mother told me I loved to argue. Whether it was a debate about when my bedtime was, or me making the case that “one more episode” wouldn’t rot my brain, I always had something to say. I would say anything and everything that entered my mind and would always defend my stance. I didn’t fully understand why I wanted to be a lawyer until the 5th grade when it was finally time to file for citizenship in the U.S. This was a hard period for my family and it took a toll on our finances. One day a woman in a grey fitted suit came to our house. She had a briefcase in one hand and a stack of papers in another. She introduced herself as our immigration attorney. I stood in the doorway fascinated by her. At the time I didn’t even know lawyers for immigration even existed. The law field was blossoming in my eyes. When I think of the courtroom I will grace one day in the future another thing comes to mind; law school. I have dreamt of going to college my whole life. College would allow me to become a role model, to make it known if I can do it anyone can. I know that new fields of law are opening up every day; and these jobs need to be filled by diverse and qualified people. I

don’t take education lightly. Mostly because I know that there are girls in countries like the one I came from all over the world who would do anything to be given a chance like mine. Education is the key to success, and everyone should be given the opportunity to succeed and grow.

What does the American Flag represent to you? 500 words.

Turbulence. Blue Toilets. 101 Dalmatians. Eight screaming kids. This is all I remember of the flight from Kenya to NYC with a layover in Istanbul. I would love to be able to recount the grueling details of the journey, but at the time three-year-old me had other things on my mind, like why did the man in front of me have a cat on the plane? Was that allowed? I don’t know if these memories on the plane are mine or if they are simply stories that have become memories. Amidst my hazy recollections, only one thing was clear: my mother, siblings and I were on our way to America. After five gruesome years and thousands of dollars, we had finally been granted refuge in the United States. We were very excited about our new life. It wasn’t like we were saying goodbye to much anyways; only our small tent in the refugee camp and our handful of belongings. Except for my mother… she was leaving everything she knew behind: her siblings, her childhood, her home. My oldest brother was trying to look after her on the plane ride. He told me when I grew older that he saw her holding back tears. My mother was afraid she was never going to see her motherland Somalia again. Ever since the war started she became accustomed to goodbyes. It was better to say goodbye than live in fear in the refugee camp. The opportunities that came with our visa greatly outweighed the reality of back home. It was a gloomy Saturday morning when we landed at JFK National Airport. Even though there was not a single ounce of light in the sky, my mother swore she saw a ray of light cascading the American Flag. The flag represented our new life. The one we were destined to have; the one that gave us hope for tomorrow.

Your a police officer and you pull over a car. The person driving the car is your best friend and they appear to be intoxicated. What would you consider in determining your course of action? What you you ultimately do? 500 words. There are many times when you are put in a situation where you don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. Do you follow your instincts and morals, or do you follow what other people have told you? Do you let yourself choose your destiny and find your end results? On the off chance that I was a police officer and I pulled over a car and in it was my best friend who appeared to be intoxicated, I would follow my morals and put the law over my friendship. As a police officer one of my duties is to make sure that every individual on the road is safe and secure. This means making sure there are no hazards on the road and people are not driving under the influence. Hundred of thousands of people are killed in the U.S due to drunk driving. If I let my friend off easy with no consequences they could become another statistic. Drunk driving is a serious issue and even if I so happened to pull over a family member they would get the same consequence. In determining my course of action I would consider why they chose to drive under the influence, if they were in any danger, and if they needed to go to the hospital. In the end in this type of situation I hope my friend would recognize that I will always choose the good of all over the greed of one.