Meet this week’s Campus Cutie, Sari Zureiqat! He’s a third year at UCLA who is aspiring to go to law school someday.
1. Where are you from and why did you choose to come to UCLA?
I grew up in Anaheim (watching Disneyland fireworks from the porch was definitely a nightly routine) but I was actually born in Amman, Jordan. UCLA checks a lot off the college bucket list, that’s for sure. I wanted to go a big college; I wanted it to be in a diverse, bustling city; I wanted to be near the ocean and I wanted home to be accessible (not that I go home much anyway–sorry Mom).
2. What is your favorite type of food?
Favorite type of food? This is like asking a parent to pick her favorite child. Is all of them an answer? Hmm…let’s just say my favorite type of food is the one I haven’t tried yet.
3. Who is your role model? How does he or she motivate you?
I’d say my role model is my dad. He’s extremely devout in his faith and helps my mom with the dishes. He’s also super supportive of my decisions, even when he doesn’t agree: When I told him I wanted to be a political science major, for example, he bought me a PoliSci textbook from a thrift store so I could ‘read up on it and make sure I liked it. I never ended up switching to PoliSci, but I never forgot the gesture.
4. What do you see yourself doing a few years from now?
In a few years I’ll probably standing at a street corner, Oliver Twist style, begging for change and/or Instagram likes. In a cooler, much-preferred alternate universe, I’ll be in law school.
5. If you could travel anywhere where would you go?
I think it would be really cool to travel around Africa. We always tend to think of the continent as one homogenous blob, but Africa is actually huge, and it’s made up of such a diversity of cultures. I think it would be awesome to remedy my internal Western biases by exploring the continent in a way that lets me appreciate its complexity.
6. What is your favorite quote and why?
“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?” –Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” I really like this quote because of the way it pushes me to think. The events going on around the world today seem to push everyone into a fear of any idea that is radical, extreme or uncomfortable–but the argument made here is that a lot of good things are also extreme things, and that it’s okay to be extremely passionate if for the right reasons.
7. What is your craziest dream/aspiration?
I bought Moby Dick meaning to read it, but I’m still on the first chapter. I would really like to finish it someday. Finishing it would be…crazy.