Arianna Yasmeen Javid

I attribute my success 1000% to my parents. They have been with me throughout my entire life, but in particular, my mom. She had to give up her career in order to take care of me when we were moving so frequently when I was young, so I really do attribute a lot of my success and where I am now, and my dreams and what I hope to pursue in the future to her, because if she wouldn't have been willing to make that sacrifice for me, I would not be where I am today.

The best piece of advice I've ever received is definitely from my grandpa. He immigrated from Iran to the U.S., and his catchphrase that he always says is, never give up, never give in. That's really informed much of how I try to live my life as a young woman. Obviously, I've experienced a lot of uncertainties and kind of instability in my life, but it's brought me to a really beautiful place where I'm really excited for what life has in store for me, and I've never let any obstacles keep me down for too long.

I would say definitely to listen to yourself, and there's gonna be a lot of people along the way who may try to steer you in other directions. There's always going to be people who have their own opinions about what success looks like in their eyes. But I feel like if you really do feel a passion for something, and you feel like you have an idea that can really do good and fulfill some part of you, that you just have to go for it. And the journey may be long, but it is worth sticking through. And at the end of it, I really do believe that you will feel a lot better having taken that risk than having abandoned it for a safer option.

In terms of challenges in the law, as a young woman very green to the legal field still, I would say that the biggest obstacle is really trying to sell yourself to firms and legal opportunities without having attended law school. I feel as though a lot of the opportunities that are available to undergraduate students just are very few, and it's not really any fault on their part, but I will say that it is very difficult for aspiring lawyers to gain exposure to the legal field. That's definitely something that I know I've struggled with, even with having a few internship opportunities, and I know that having talked to many of my peers is also something that they struggle with. In terms of opportunities, I think that there is a massive opening for immigration law and a lot of these nonprofit work. I feel like people who are really getting into the news and world events are aligning themselves more with the human cause. I feel like a lot of these immigration firms, a lot of these nonprofit discriminatory work, they really are trying to get young people to understand where they're coming from and why their mission is so important. That's why I'm working with both an immigration firm and a nonprofit right now, and I've found that the work has just been absolutely incredible for me to kind of get inside on, and I've also referred some of my friends to that type of work, and they've had similar incredible experiences. So, I really do feel like within the next few years, it really will start to open up more.

The values that are most important to me are definitely values that have been instilled in me by my parents. I would definitely say grit is a really big one from my dad and my grandpa. They're very keen on pushing through and having resilience. I also think loyalty has been a really big one, just because again, having moved so frequently, I really do feel like the people and the places that I connect with happens very rarely, so when I do really align with someone or a cause in particular, I feel very drawn to stay loyal to that cause and to continue to support it long after I've left. So I would really say those two in particular - grit and loyalty.