2020 Shabgahi, Sani

Hi everyone, 

My name is Sani Shabgahi. My preferred pronouns are she/her. I am a fourth year, biology major. I am expected to graduate this spring quarter. I was born in Germany and moved to the United States when I was two years ago. I am from Riverside, California which is only a two hour drive from UCLA. I usually drive home on the weekends for food and to do my laundry at home. I also love seeing my dog. I have one older sister who is in her second year of medical school. Just like my sister, I hope to become a doctor and will be applying to medical school this year. During my gap year, I hope to gain more medical experience as I will travel to an underserved country, in which medical help is desperately seeked. Not only do I want to impact the lives of my future patients, but I hope to abolish the stereotypical representation of a doctor, which is usually a white male. My dad left his perfect life as a doctor in Germany in order for my sister and I to have various opportunities in the United States. Germans often discriminated against my family and I because we were not the typical white, blue-eyed Germans that Hitler had described. My parents did not want my sister and I suffer in that world.  I owe my parents the world and hope to make them proud one day. 

I have decided to take this course because I enjoyed the courses Chicano 10a and 10b. In my culture, women are often granted gender roles, and I love taking classes that address this issue. I am excited to witness how Chicana art has created an important message against the stereotypes that our institutions have created for women. These next ten weeks will be very informational and inspiring.