My name is Sidra Zeeshan, I am 18 years old. I am a senior at Sports and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford, Connecticut. I transferred to SMSA during my junior year and it was a struggle to fit in and make new friends but it all worked out in the end. Transferring to this school was the best decision I made because they offered classes that you wouldn't expect to be offered in other high schools. I am the oldest of 3, I have a brother and a sister. I moved to America from Pakistan when I was 2 years old and I have been living in Connecticut all my life. Moving here at such a young age wasn't too difficult because once I started school I made new friends and later blended in with everyone. As a child I loved helping people which later on led me to the realization that I wanted to make a difference in peoples lives. One difficult challenge my family and I faced here in America was my religion and how people saw us in the society. Being a Muslim and growing up in America for me wasn't that difficult as I was just a toddler but my parents did face a lot of hurdles to get to where they are today and that came with a lot of sacrifices to give us the best life possible. As a child I was always my parents right hand and growing up I was able to comprehend what was going on in the world and my own family. Every little bump in my life led me to find the motivation for this project. My motivation for this project started out because when I was 8 years old, my dad had an open heart surgery and my mom was with him all the time. My mom would always read to me before I went to bed but my sister and brother never got that opportunity due to this incident. I decided to be the motherly figure and read to my brother and sister every night so they could grow to love reading as much as I do and so that they could grow up and have higher reading and comprehension skills.
Mission Statement: In the future I plan on attending a 4 year college with Psychology being my major for my undergrad degree and then go on to graduate school to pursue a degree in psychiatry. My intended career goal is to become a children and adolescent psychiatrist and continue to help and give back to the community.