Youth Group Inspiration by tehmina

Youth Group Inspiration by tehmina - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

About six years ago, I slowly got involved in my local mosque. I would just sit in the youth group meetings and see what was going on. At the end of that school year, and summer was approaching, I was asked to coordinate the girls’ youth group. As excited as I was, I never thought I would be able to “fill the shoes” of my predecessor. As I got to know everyone in the group individually, I realized that together we can make a difference in our community. We started participating in walkathons for domestic violence survivors and town cleanups, where a whole block/street would be cleaned of garbage and recyclables.
Furthermore, we tried to do two to three bake sales for the school year. One of the bake sales would be for a local charity or organization and the other two would be for Helping Hand for Relief and Development towards victims of disasters around the world. I was also able to organize one of the largest clothing drives in our community whereby 450 boxes of clothing were sent to indigenous people in Pakistan. We are also able to do yearly food drives for local organizations, in which more than 1,000 pounds of food has already been donated.
Being coordinator of the youth group has inspired me to go back to school and be part of the “bigger picture.” I wanted to more involved in my community and be part of a change on a social level. In addition, I have a strong passion for socio-economic change to influence the movement for health care coverage for the poor and uninsured. My intention for being part of the Social Work Program will help me to lead by example for others to follow the steps towards advocacy for social justice.