((PKG)) ZARA ALI
((Banner: Law))
((Reporter/Camera: Esha Sarai))
((Map: Wilmington, Delaware))
((Zara Ali, High School Graduate))
I am right here with my UVA sweat shirt. I will be going to the University of Virginia. I’m a Jefferson scholar there. I’d like to go to law school. My mom is an immigration lawyer, so I have kind of grown up hearing about it. And now, more than ever, I think the topic is super relevant. I tried my hand with criminal law last summer. I worked with the Department of Justice here in Delaware. I saw like a different side to it, very different from like what TV shows show.
In 2012, we started our non-profit called Zoomantra. It stemmed from work that I had already been doing in Mumbai, teaching like math and English. A lot of the students’ parents just could not afford to not have them at home working, even though the enrichment center was free. A lot of the mothers of these students that were leaving make hand crafted products. We started giving away the products as gifts to friends and family, and we realized that people were interested in where these came from and they wanted more of this stuff.
We started using Instagram and that is really where it took off. We used some of the grants we had to make our website and from that it’s just kind of grown to be able to support larger cooperatives of women in Mumbai and Karachi.
My mom actually grew up in Mumbai and my grandparents still live there. It’s become one of my most favorite places to visit in the entire world. You will never know what you will find there. You can never be bored there, and that’s the best part about it. I think, just right off the bat, moving here like into a school that is K through 12, I have never been at a school where people could be at one place for 14 years. I just couldn’t understand how they knew each other since like before they could even walk.
People tend to stick with what they know. And sometimes it is difficult to feel like you have like a global outlook in a place like that, but I think that if you are always looking for those kinds of people, you will find them no matter where you go and I was able to find those kinds of people here.
