veiled4allah

early stages of campus activism

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Human Rights Club at college. Today was the open forum on human rights that the club was sponsoring. It went pretty well, all things considered. One of the speakers (who is also one of my instructors) was in a car accident yesterday and was unable to attend, so we had to find somebody else at the last minute to speak. Like I said, all things considered, it went pretty well.

Some instructors took their classes to the forum, which means that not everybody who was there was present because they cared about human rights. In fact, this guy who was sitting behind me tore up his copy of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights that was handed out (I am not kidding) and spent most of the time making remarks under his breath about how all this whining about human rights was BS.

The club's next project is to put on an informational forum about the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

more dealings with school bureaucracy

I may be able to get a Worker Retraining scholarship for spring quarter. I got one for fall quarter but they didn't have any money for winter quarter. Apparently, they've now got more funding.

Even if I don't get the money, I'll be able to register for my classes before regular registration starts. I'm really glad about this because the last two quarters I've had trouble getting into the classes I need because they've already closed by the time I register.

Also today I filed my application for graduation. What, already? Well, I expect to graduate after summer quarter, inshallah, and the college requires students to apply two quarters before their intended graduation. Still, didn't I just start here last quarter?

Aside: Inshallah, I will be blogging late tonight or tomorrow about the question of Palestinian non-violence movements. I'm at school right now and don't have the time or the resources to put together the post right now. Stay tuned...

interesting happenings on campus

Today is a long day at campus. Unfortunately, I'm only halfway through it, and I've got an exam to wrap up the day :deathstare:

I went to campus early today in order to attend a dramatic performance called "The Right to Dream". This is part of the college's Martin Luther King Day observances, which stretch all week. "The Right to Dream" was a narrative about life in the South under Jim Crow and about the violent resistance the civil rights activists faced. It was a sobering reminder of how bad things were in this country as recently as 35 years ago.

Later I found out about a new student club called the Human Rights Club. Their main activity seems to be holding discussion forums on human rights and civil rights topics for the student body at large, but some of the members also work with the ACLU and other organizations. Fortunately, their meetings fit into my schedule (the paralegal club and Muslim Student Association meetings both manage not to work out for me).

These are issues that I care a lot about, as readers of my blog know, so I'm glad that this opportunity has become available. And maybe it can lead to future opportunities as well, inshallah.

I escaped unscathed, but my paper didn't

Now I know that my Legal Writing class is going to be tough. Our first assignment was to write a confirming letter, i.e., a letter sent to another law firm confirming arrangments made by telephone. It was a very simple letter, not more than a few sentences. The instructor blacked out the names then put up most of the letters on the overhead in order to tear them apart in front of the class for even such minor faults as writing "this is to confirm" instead of "this confirms" (which is a shorter phrase and thus better). I could visualize my grade point average going down, down, down, because of this class as I saw how the instructor was evaluating the letters.

I'm sure this will be one of those things I'll look back on later and say that it was of benefit to me and to my writing skills. I'm not sure when was a last time I took a writing class this rigorous, if ever. And that's good. But I sure don't think I'm going to enjoy the class while I'm in it. :-/

In other news, I received word that I'm eligible to join Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for students at community colleges. For some reason, it's not enough to get good grades to get in, you also have to pay a $60 fee. Somehow that makes it seem less of an honor in my eyes. Shouldn't it be purely for achievement? Of course, it's been awhile since I was in college, so maybe all honor societies are like that these days.

ups and downs of life as a student

It's been awhile since I was in school and I had forgotten how boring a writing class can be sometimes, detailing rules of proper usage and style and all that. That's how my Legal Writing course was the first few class sessions. Fortunately now we've gotten more into how to write certain types of legal documents.

Also boring is the Introduction to Law class I'm taking because I couldn't get into it last quarter. So far all the material is stuff I already covered in my other classes. It almost reminds me of being back in American Government class in high school.

Thank God my high school days are far behind me. I wouldn't go back if you paid me (well, unless you paid me a lot ;) )

Hopefully my classes will get more interesting as the quarter progresses. After all, this is only the second week of the quarter. Also part of the problem is having two classes late in the evening; my mind tends to wander when I'm tired. Fortunately the last class of the day is also the most interesting of the three, or I would be asleep for sure, lol :p

blogging from school again

Winter quarter classes started today. I have a really weird schedule this quarter. I have a class from noon to 2:10 p.m., then my next class is from 5 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. and my third class of the day is from 7:15 p.m. to 9:25 p.m. So I have this period of nearly three hours in the middle of the day. It isn't enough time to return home; I'd just have to turn around and come back shortly after I got there. I figure that I can do homework, inshallah. And if I have some extra time, I can work on my Quran memorization, inshallah (I got behind because I wasn't able to really work on it on my vacation).

The first day is always the weirdest. Last quarter all my classes let out way early on the first day because the instructors wanted us to have a chance to do reading before they began the instruction and of course we don't have a chance to do reading before the first day of class :p My first class today took the other option which is to do all those "let's introduce ourselves to the class" activities :rolleyes:

I still have two more classes to go, so we'll see how that is.

The other thing I had to do today was go to the Financial Aid office. I'm not eligible for federal financial aid because I have a bachelor's degree already. So since my parents are helping me pay for school, I didn't apply for financial aid. However, I got on their lists because I got a Worker Retraining scholarship last quarter. So what happened is that while I was on vacation I got a letter from the Financial Aid office claiming that I would not be eligible for financial aid for winter quarter because either I hadn't taken enough credits or my grades weren't good enough. I was like WTH?! I took 15 credits and got a 4.0. So I went by the Financial Aid office to get it cleared up. It turns out that one of my instructors was apparently late in submitting grades or the Financial Aid office checked my grades before all of them had been submitted. So to them it looked like I didn't have a complete schedule and that's why I got that stupid letter. How annoying :mad: I made sure that they would update their records. Bloody bureaucracies.

woohoo!!!

:blob: :blob: :blob: :blob:

Grades for fall quarter were just posted. I got a perfect 4.0! All praise is due to Allah SWT

:D :D :D :D

my paralegal studies

Tomorrow I have two final exams. After that, I'll be done for the quarter :)

I'm really enjoying my classes. I entered the paralegal program because I thought it might be interesting and that it would be suited to my experience and talents and be useful for my career. But I didn't expect how much I would like studying law. I know that it seems boring or pointless to most people but I enjoy wrapping my mind around problems until I see the solution. Also, a lot of legal issues are important in terms of what's going on today and how we live our lives. I also enjoy learning more about history. I think law is a great field for someone as bookish as me, lol.

looking ahead...

Today was my last day of classes this quarter. Technically, Monday is the last day of classes but all my instructors cancelled them so we have more time to study :D

I got to look at a preliminary schedule for spring quarter, which was very helpful towards planning what I should take. I need to take Ethics, which I was unable to get into this quarter. This includes a 24-hour internship at any organization that provides pro bono legal services. It's called the Community Justice Project. Inshallah, I'm looking into an organization in my community that, among other things, is helping Somali immigrants who are facing deportation.

I also want to take Civil Rights Law spring quarter. I wanted to take it this last quarter but I couldn't get in. They don't usually offer it twice in a year, but the demand is so great in the wake of 9/11 that they decided to do so, and I'm glad.

Inshallah, I'll also take two of the following three: Torts, Criminal Law, or Legal Investigation.

If I can just get into these classes, it sounds great! I'll also be in college during summer quarter in order to complete a 90-150 hour internship and to take some additional electives, inshallah.

more school notes

I spent most of the day finishing up one of my term projects that is due tomorrow. Another term project was due last Wednesday, and the third one will be due next Monday. Besides that, I have two final exams next Wednesday. But after all of that, the quarter will be over!

I paid my tuition and bought my books on Monday. The tuition and fees was $736 and I had to buy two new textbooks, which cost nearly $140. The cost of textbooks is just outrageous.