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Samia Amin

Biography

Samia Amin, 24, a self-described bookworm who overcame family fears that reading would damage her eyesight, is now committed to promoting universal literacy and improved public education in her native Pakistan. Majoring in political science at Middlebury College in Vermont, Ms. Amin recorded a 3.8 GPA, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated with highest honors. In addition, she chaired a South Asia Club Symposium Committee at the school, raising funds for a three-day cultural and literary conference that has become an annual event. She intends to pursue a master in public policy degree at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Growing up in a family of six, bedeviled by older siblings and pestered by younger ones, Samia learned early in life how to become a "survivor." She often hid in a closet, under a bed, or out in the yard to escape from her grandmother's worry that so much reading would harm her eyesight. "I could not imagine life without my books," Ms. Amin writes. "My commitment to improving literacy is informed in part by my desire to share this pleasure with others."

Samia's determination to challenge authority did not stop there. At Middlebury, Samia began to feel that she and students from India had been "brainwashed" into mutual antagonism by their parochial education systems. "Learning to outgrow my own uninformed beliefs was a crucial part of my education," she recalls. She worked hard to launch a South Asia Symposium on the Arts to encourage people from her region to focus on their common heritage rather than their differences. At the same time, she won highest honors in political science and graduated summa cum laude.

Samia was chosen as one of eight Junior Fellows (from a field of 400) by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She did research on nuclear non-proliferation and nation-building there and worked for a summer in a Wall Street office as a financial analyst. Her main interest, however, centers on reform of the education system in her native Pakistan. "I have come to realize how central education is to a healthy democracy," Samia says. "I know that even if I do not succeed in changing the course of Pakistani society wholesale, I can help improve the quality of life for its citizens by vesting my energies in universal education."

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