Tarazi Mohammad Sheikh
‘“I accomplished things which I thought would be absolutely impossible for me to do and that made me believe everything in this world is possible.” said Tarazi Sheikh, a final year Law student at BRACU, working as a senior editor in Jurist Legal News and Research (University of Pittsburgh). She has also made an impression as the first Bangladeshi student director at the International Law Students Association Board of Directors. Her empowering story captivates the minds and hearts of not only law students but also aspiring academics, scholars, judges, representatives, and students from any background to step up and make a difference on a global scale.
Choosing Law was a 5-minute decision that would steer her life’s course in a direction she hadn’t planned when she was younger. She remembers the first time the zeal to accomplish struck her, it was when her first Law teacher told her in a simple conversation that she had the potential to do something meaningful one day. Despite being the first-generation law student in her family, she still managed to find answers from all of her hard work, research, and desire to achieve through participating in important events, networking, working with law firms, NGOs, etc.
She remembers sabotaging her personal life but her friends and family were all understanding and supportive of her choice. She admits that there will be times when you miss the balance between academics and work. Yet, she is very optimistic and does not like to focus on challenges and states that everything comes with a price. Her role in ILSA is a crucial one as a huge effort needs to be put into making opinions convincing in board meetings and presenting reports. She is also currently working with many universities in the Asian regions to increase participation in the Jessup competition and international legal professions which includes supervision and monitoring.
She advises students to start early on their aims instead of waiting and following the crowd. Her goal is to increase South Asian representation and participation in the international law and justice field. She wants to get into the international judicial system, focus on research work toward becoming an academic scholar, and work with students wanting to pursue international law. As someone who loves quotes, one she religiously follows is James Cameron’s words “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s still a failure, you will fail above everyone’s successes” which has the power to inspire anyone in any position in life.
