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 Sadia Rafiquddin, 0T8
 JUNE 2007 - Like many young social activists, Sadia Rafiquddin can’t stand to see injustice. But while her peers may be driven by youthful idealism, Rafiquddin’s passion for human rights is fuelled by first-hand experience. Born in Pakistan, she came to Canada with her parents and two siblings when she was five to escape maltreatment suffered by their particular religious sect, the Ahmadis. “My parents had their homes and livelihoods taken away, but there are millions of others in countries across the globe who are abused and tortured every day for who they are and what they believe,” says Rafiquddin. “There need to be voices that say ‘This is wrong, and we’re going to do something about it.’” Rafiquddin’s mother was a teacher, and her father owned an export business in Pakistan, yet they gave up everything, including their careers, when they left. Growing up with little money, Rafiquddin says she learned to value education above all else and resolved to work hard so she could at least partially fund her university tuition through scholarships. She juggled part-time work with volunteer commitments at human rights organizations since early high school and in her first year at Trinity she had two jobs in addition to helping her mother manage her at-home daycare. Hard work did not hold her back, however. In March 2007, she was one of six recipients of the New Pioneers Award, a $1,000 prize presented by Skills for Change, a non-profit agency, to recognize the contributions of immigrants and refugees to their new community. Her first major moral and financial boost came in the fall of 2005, when she became one of two inaugural recipients of the William and Nona Heaslip Scholarships. While she had won several scholarships in high school, she says nothing compared with the joy and relief of winning a Heaslip award, which provides $15,000 per year to each of two students entering second year and is renewable for their third and fourth years provided the recipients continue to meet eligibility standards. With the jobs no longer necessary, Rafiquddin – who is in the joint specialist program in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies – filled her schedule with activities geared to her career ambition of working in international development. One of her goals is to return to Pakistan one day as a teacher and role model for young girls. She is co-president of the campus chapter of Amnesty International, and has also served as co-president of the International Relations Society and on the executive of the Association of Political Science Students. She also added an interesting item to her resume as one of three researchers who assisted Provost Margaret MacMillan gather background details for Nixon in China, released in October 2006. In May of 2006, Rafiquddin was chosen one of 20 outstanding Canadian students to travel to Botswana with World University Service of Canada for a six-week internship on HIV/AIDS. In the summer of 2007, she will return to Africa, just one of the places where she wants to make a difference in the future, to do research on HIV/AIDS at the University of Namibia for two and half months. In the summer of 2006, she attended the G8 summit in St. Petersburg , where she followed the goals and priorities of the U.S., and she attended the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, before going on to Africa. William Heaslip, the benefactor who initiated the Heaslip scholarships, died in March of 2006, just before Rafiquddin learned that she had been chosen for the Botswana internship, but he will live in her memory. “I’ll remember Mr. Heaslip years and years from now for providing me with the means to meet my potential and be able to give back in this world, which is really what I want for my life.” – Megan Easton |
