2008 New Leaders Summer Interns
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Urooj Khan
Hometown: New York City, New York
Age: 19
School: Swarthmore College
Interests: Empowering Women, Reading Blogs and Books Compusively
Internship: Feminist Majority Foundation
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Urooj was born in Pakistan, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 5. She grew up in New York, and is a rising junior at Swarthmore College majoring in Political Science, with minors Islamic Studies and Women's Studies.
She is currently an editor for The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online campus newspaper, and has used this position to establish a better relationship between cultural and queer communities on campus. She is committed to doing advocacy work for survivors of gender-based violence. Urooj wants to work towards building a society which affirms the humanity and dignity of all its members, regardless of gender or race. |
"I don't want to be invisible anymore, and that is why I want to work with the New Leaders program. I want to meet other young people who share my frustrations and want to make changes, and I want to find role models who have already overcome these obstacles."
- Urooj Khan,
2008 New Leaders Summer Intern |
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| More about Urooj |
What are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about raising awareness around issues of sexual violence and harassment, and want to do advocacy work on behalf of survivors.
You're stranded on a deserted island. What is one book or album that you can't live without?
The Harry Potter Series because they are so readable.
What do you hope to take away from your experience as a CPL New Leader?
For a long period of time, I was the only person of color on the entire staff of my campus newspaper, The Daily Gazette. I was a reporter at that time, and made it a personal issue to cover stories that were important to the communities of color and queer communities on my campus. I have tried to personally fight the lack of campus diversity by taking on leadership roles on my campus. The fact of the matter is that people of color, especially women of color, are largely invisible at the highest levels of government and power in this country. As a person of color, as a woman, as an immigrant, as a Muslim-- I don't see people like myself on CNN or giving briefings in the White House. I don't want to be invisible anymore, and that is why I want to work with the New Leaders program. I want to meet other young people who share my frustrations and want to make changes, and I want to find role models who have already overcome these obstacles.
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