Peering out of the window, the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal range rest in the distance surrounding the beautiful Kashmir valley. What was once a peaceful homeland is now a disputed territory of three countries with many problems remaining unsolved. What Aneela Mousam recalls a place she spent with friends and family until she was eight years old, is now is a distant memory that was shaken after a tragic earthquake and a government in shambles that cannot help their society.
Growing up in a culture-oriented world, Aneela has now grown accustomed to helping others. Aneela’s passion to travel to various countries and her drive to improve the quality of life for those less fortunate contributes to her pity for her homeland of Kashmir, located in northwestern India. “I love it here in America,” Aneela explains, but it is obvious with her past volunteering experience in high school working in her school’s Center for Leadership and Public Service creating awareness campaigns and facilitating workshops to promote tolerance and mutual respect that she is a very passionate and responsible young woman with many goals in mind. She has even continued to volunteer in college. She is a current member of SWI and also helped during a fundraising event to raise money for food banks. “In high school Aneela was doing a lot of volunteering through her school, in the hospital, and in her community,” her parents explained. When she was growing up she wanted to join Doctors without Borders to help in third world countries but she “realized that [she] doesn’t really like biology,” and she wanted to apply to Virginia Tech as an engineer major.
Being accepted into Virginia Tech’s engineering program has been Aneela’s biggest accomplishment in her life. She has thought about studying something along the lines of water resourcing. “I want to go to graduate school and work on something with the environment,” Aneela explained. Moving from another country to America has had the greatest influence on her because where she grew up it was a small village and she knew all of her neighbors. Everyone had the same religion, culture, and background. They all had the same beliefs. There is no running water in Kashmir and the electricity goes out during the night. The hardest part for Aneela was leaving her family in Kashmir. After moving to America when she was eight, she has lived in Arlington, located in Northern Virginia, for the rest of her life and the change seems to have been a dramatic culture shock for Aneela because of the infused “melting pot” in the United States.
Aneela has traveled to her home country three times since she lived there to visit her family. In those past visits she has now come to realize all of the privileges she has in America. The last time she visited was in tenth grade after the earthquake in October 2005. “76,000 people died in a town four hours away from where we lived,” she explained. “The house was messed up and I remember the apple tree that I used to climb when I was younger was gone,” Aneela continued. After viewing this tragic event, she has always wanted to go back again and help because of the poor living conditions. The hospitals are also less than satisfactory and it is probable that that contributed to her earlier desire to become a doctor.
Although college is often the best time in someone’s life, it is also very demanding and at first a difficult challenge to adapt to. Aneela admits that she often gets stressed out very easily but being a nearly perfect student (always receiving A’s and B’s), she always finds time for her schoolwork and it is one of her top priorities. “I always get it done,” she explains, “but I wish I didn’t wait ‘til the last minute.” A lot of people have found ways to cheat their way into the best schools and to receive the highest GPAs dishonestly but Aneela is far from one of those students. Her teacher, Mr. Michael Palermo, recalls when she was in high school that while passing out tests, Aneela demanded to receive a different exam. “I taught her in Advanced Placement Government and Politics and the students were taking a major test. Aneela realized that she had come across [of] a copy of the exam online and notified me immediately and requested that she take a different test,” Palermo explained. “I remember being incredibly impressed with the integrity and moral clarity that she exhibited in a difficult situation. Aneela is highly intelligent, responsible, and outspoken,” he continued. Being as honest as she is, she wanted a fair chance to earn her grade. It is hard to be as honest as she was in such a difficult situation where most students would die for such an easy opportunity to earn a better grade.
Aneela’s parents have never been concerned with her grades because she has always been a bright student and she has never made any bad decisions. In school, she is self-motivated. Although when most people first meet Aneela, she seems very shy and reserved, all of her friends and family would agree that she is a very fun and outgoing person. Her parents have noticed that the house is much more quiet now that Aneela has gone away to college. She is very close with her parents and they watch movies together often. Aneela “values her friends, family, education, and cultural and religious values,” her parents mentioned. She has a very successful future ahead of her. She is very independent and works hard in school without being forced to. She is a dedicated and mature young woman. Although she sometimes appears to be unorganized, her roommate describes her as “neat at heart.” Though her desk may appear messy, “she’s actually pretty organized and neat.” Even only knowing her for a few months after meeting each other this summer, she describes her as “fun, understanding, [and] hardworking.”
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