Shazia in front of the university’s Main Building. Photo by Inga Külmoja.
I was running a few minutes late and in a mild panic – arranging a meeting in front of the university’s Main Building in late June was a hopeless idea. Usually the place gets fully invaded by a happy crowd of fresh graduates, their families, and friends. Luckily, it wasn’t the most crowded moment that day and I spotted Shazia almost immediately.
She was wearing a beautiful white Pakistani dress, all ready to join the Rector’s reception for cum laude graduates at the UT Botanical Garden a few hours later. We sat down for an interview and Shazia Javed told her incredible story.
As a teenager, she had a dream to become an astronaut. “Unfortunately, we’re not really welcome in NASA,” noted Shazia. Then she thought: “If I cannot be an astronaut, what can I be?” and discovered herself in Computer Science.
After graduating from the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Islamabad with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Shazia’s next dream was Cornell University. This is nothing out of the ordinary, as the young woman comes from a family where everyone has studied at the world’s best universities. As Shazia puts it: “Cornell is a very, very, very selective university; if you get in there, it’s like you’ve done something in your life.” And, she got in. However, at the very last moment her sponsor company withdrew their support, and the dream crashed. Continue reading →
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