{"id":7286,"date":"2023-08-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/?p=7286"},"modified":"2023-08-25T13:33:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T18:33:58","slug":"why-this-student-is-advocating-for-educational-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/why-this-student-is-advocating-for-educational-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"Why This Student Is Advocating for Educational Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once, while she was in high school, Khadija Rashid was in a meeting representing the Brooklyn South Borough on the Chancellor\u2019s Student Advisory Council learning about and reviewing New York City Department of Education budget allocations for secondary education, when she and her peers had an eye-opening experience on educational equity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t grasp the idea that this is the budget, but there are kids going hungry in schools,\u201d she says. \u201cKids who don\u2019t have textbooks in schools. Why? Because of how segregated the system was. Specialized high schools were getting around 10 percent of the budget and other schools were getting close to none.\u201d<\/p>\n

That and other activity on the advisory council caused Rashid to reflect on the sprawling effect of the education system on individual students and on the population as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a vicious cycle,\u201d she says. \u201cThe neighborhood you\u2019re in is the education you\u2019ll get. And you end up staying in that neighborhood with little chance of social mobility, even though the American dream preaches it. There are things in place, previous laws that have been in place, that are hindering people\u2019s growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

That and an earlier experience living in Pakistan led Rashid to a renewed sense of purpose advocating for educational equity for all. Now Rashid is a rising junior at Cornell University and a 2023 intern for Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae<\/a> working on projects to open doors for others the way they\u2019ve been opened for her. Following her experience as a campaign manager in a Young Invincibles<\/a> fellowship program, she plans on becoming a United Nations consultant to work at the intersection of policy, education, and global affairs to create a positive impact on the world.<\/p>\n

On the power of education<\/h2>\n

Rashid\u2019s family is from Pakistan, and when she lived there for one year when she was 11, she observed how gender norms create barriers to education for other girls her age.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery morning, I would go to school with their brothers while these girls were staying at home,\u201d she says. \u201cThese girls are the ones getting ice since they did not have a refrigerator and doing the hard work to make the house run. Your brothers are able to go to school with their uniforms ironed in the morning, but you can\u2019t? That didn\u2019t sit right with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now as the first woman in her family to go to an Ivy league college, she often reflects on the barriers she is breaking, and she wants her own education to support advocacy for other students.<\/p>\n