hey guys! im new here and would realllllllly appreciate some help with my personal stmt, I just wrote it these past few hours and its extremely rough, but please let me know what you guys think about it!
stats: GPA: 3.4, LSAT: 167
I’m a 21 year old Pakistani Muslim woman majoring in Political Science from XXXUniversity and I have done one thing that Hilary Clinton has failed to do. I became President. Two years ago, I managed to do something that decades of girls at XXX have tried to do before me, I became the first female President of the Muslim Student Association at XXX University. Unlike Hilary, I did not wish to stand out from the crowd, rather, I wanted to identify myself with my various peers in ways more than just my religious affiliation.
My freshman year in high school, the tragic events of 9/11 left me in a situation where I was vulnerable to prejudice and unsolicited labeling as a “Muslim,” and that’s it. I walked through the halls with nothing more to my identity then the veil on my head distinguishing my religious affiliation. As I expected, I was verbally attacked, threatened and harassed. I’ve had claims made against me that I was passing Anthrax in the halls by “accidently” bumping into others; to blatant threats made to my face such as “I’m gonna knock that cloth off your head.” For any 13 year old girl, this had the potential of having an extremely powerful negative mental and social impact. For me, I embraced the challenge of having to prove to people, there is much more to this girl behind the veil.
I took this opportunity to indulge myself into different activities in the interest of proving to people that I was Muslim, but I was more as well. I joined the creative writing club and became known as the Muslim poet. I ventured into different community service activities, organizing trips to soup kitchens, passing out ribbons on the anniversary of 9/11, hence making me known as the Muslim _________. My junior year of high school, I moved to New Jersey, my eighth move in 15 years. To other 15 year old girls, this would seem like a frustrating obstacle and having to start all over again. To me, this was a wonderful opportunity to broaden my horizons and enlighten a new group of people that there was something more to me than just being “Muslim.” I immediately engaged myself in various organizations excited about showing my peers what I was capable of. I became extremely active in Model Congress, Model United Nations, Mock Trial, and got a new title for myself. I was the Muslim “Legal Buff,” partaking in several conferences around the United States, proving to people that yes, I was Muslim, but there is so much more to me than just that. I worked hard my junior year and found a spot on my high school's IPLE team. Our IPLE (Institute for Political and Legal Education) Team was this opportunity I was given to prove not only to my peers, but on a national level that I was more than just a Muslim. We competed against several schools on a state level on the fundamentals of the Constitution in the "
We The People competition" and earned a spot to represent New Jersey on a national level. There, performing in front of distinguished politicians and legal scholars, my team won nationals. I felt as if I accomplished my goal: I showed the world (well the United States, at least) that I was so much more than just a Muslim. I had a potential to influence people on a national level and it was at this point I realized I wanted to partake in the legal world. There are plenty of Muslim doctors and engineers, but there is a serious lack of Muslim lawyers. I wanted to be able to influence the world, and show the world I was so much more than the label that was etched onto me when I was 13 years old.
This journey led me to XXX. As a student at XXX University, one of the most diverse schools in the United States, I thought my challenge was nonexistent, that in the population of 3000 Muslims on campus, someone must have proven to the populace that there is so much more to Muslims than just their religion. While earning my B.A. in political science and remaining active in the pre-law society on campus as well as several other organizations on campus including BAKA-Students for Middle Eastern Justice, OXFAM, The Pakistani Student Association; I reached out to the Muslim Student Association on campus in hopes that I would be able to engage with other individuals who longed to strip themselves of the label that we were engraved with a few years ago. It was then I was faced with two new obstacles, me being a woman, and me being a Shitte, which leaves me a minority in the Muslim populace not only at XXX, but in the world. I have always been a leader, taking on several leadership roles of several organizations on both in high school as well as at XXX, I was faced with this new challenge, I was not allowed to be President of the organization based solely on the fact that I was a girl. This bothered me greatly, not because I seek leadership and I refused to be anything less; but, because I was being prevented to engage in a role for something under which I had no control. I then sought to face this challenge. I, along with several others, challenged this at the administrative level at XXX. I was also a shitte, a minority, but I reached out to my fellow Muslims shying away from the label of Shitte, and bringing them closer with the common identities I shared with people. I identified myself as Pakistani with some of my fellow Muslims, to some I was a fellow pre-law student, to some I was a fellow woman. I fought this with great forcefulness, and it ended in the establishment of two separate Muslim organizations on campus. One was revolving around the "wahabi," or extremist sect on campus that did not allow women to be Presidents, and attempted to amend the Constitution to prevent anyone from being an executive board member unless they shared the same religious values as them. The other was the more liberal and accepting organization with the name "SALAM," meaning "peace." As soon as SALAM surfaced, I became extremely active to the point where I began as a PR officer, and was voted on as Vice President a semester later. Then, my junior year, I was voted on as the first female President of a Muslim Student Association at XXX University. Not only was I the first female President, but I was good at it. I used all my identities, my creative side, my innovative side, my political side, and incorporated it into running this organization to the best of my potential to the point where the organization was acclaimed by many Deans to be one of the most successful new organizations on campus with over 300 active members. I did not stop there. Of course, Hilary did not have the option of forming her own government on the side and staking her claim as President, but through my hard work and successful leadership, I managed to sway in many of the members of the other Muslim organization, hence calling into discussions of coming together as one Muslim organization once again. This too, I managed to do successfully while not budging on the principles that SALAM worked so hard to develop of unprejudiced and rationalization.
its obviously not done yet...I couldn't really think of a good way to close it. I kind of wanted to talk about how i worked throughout my 4 years at school as well...idk, what do you guys think?
). 
