Jasmine Kaur
College Advisor @ UCLA and USC
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Orgs and ECs:
United Sikh Movement, USC SSA, Sociology Undergraduate Association President of the Resident Government Council Director of Rel. Affairs, UCLA Arts and Creative Writer for Fem NewsMagazine 2018-2019, Board Officer for the United Nations Association UCLA Dialogue Writer for Fem NewsMagazine UCLA Tie-In Education School-Site Volunteer Program **
Internships not listed but can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-gawra/
Bio:
My name is Jasmine Kaur. I’m 20 years old and recently finished my undergraduate degree with high-standing at UCLA. I graduated UCLA two years early because I was in a dual-enrollment program in high school with a local community college. I’m a LA native and absolutely love this city. I’m interests include discovering new places to eat, trying out new hobbies (currently pottery), reading, writing, and meeting new people!
While at UCLA, I worked on several projects such as inclusivity training, new policies, the first interfaith story-telling event as UCLA with the Vice-Chancellor as the opener, and taught a class on Allyship and Intergroup Dialogue so much more. I’m still working on these projects despite having graduated as faculty and UCLA staff continue to call on me for support and prepare the next class of leaders to take on the projects I started.
I realized that advocacy and allyship are aspects that I wanted to grow in. Since I finished undergrad in two years, I decided to spend the next two years obtaining my Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from USC. My goal still remains to go to law school after I do my MPP. My MPP will allow me to do risk assessments and evaluations based on the population I intend to serve (something law school doesn’t teach you). I hope to then use my JD to work in different areas: in the public defender’s office, legal defense, a nonprofit (like the ACLU), and others focused on civil liberties and rights. Ultimately, I plan to create legislation and policy that is instrumental in prison abolition.
I consider myself overall very successful–a sentiment which encompasses all my failures, too. However, I had a lot of help along the way. I went to a networking seminar and networked my way into several internships and positions throughout the years. Some of my mentors are exactly who I want to be when I group up and constantly cheer me on. I know the impact of having people on the sidelines cheering you on, especially when you think you can’t make it. I would love to help any young Sikh professionals in any way I can with their journey!
