Two years ago, Aneesah Latkan thought her dream of studying law was over after narrowly missing the grades for her first-choice university.
But after getting accepted through Clearing to De Montfort Law School, she has been able to travel the world, study law and do what she loves best – helping people.
Embracing all the opportunities that DMU has to offer, Aneesah has been able to speak at the United Nations, support work to help refugee families in Germany and been given a commendation by her faculty for performing well in her year.
And being part of DMU’s visit to the United Nations in February this year has given her a new career goal, to work for the UN herself. She is part of a university delegation to be invited to the UN next week (August 23) to discuss the next phase of DMU’s work.
She said: “So much has happened to me since I started at DMU, I can’t believe it. Next week I am going to New York to suggest ideas for projects that help meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It’s incredible when you think about it.”
Aneesah said she remembered the day she collected her A-levels as it had confirmed her sense she had not done as well as she had hoped.
She said: “Before my results, I had an inkling that I had not done as well as I wanted, so I started to do research about universities that offered law. I’m from Leicester and I had friends and knew people at DMU so it was one of the universities I looked at.
“Honestly, the day of A-levels I was looking at my results and I thought ‘there’s nowhere I can get in life’ – it sounds so dramatic but I felt so down. But because I’d done my research, I was able to make informed calls and I rang DMU and talked to them and explained how much I wanted to study law. They were so helpful.”
Aneesah, from Humberstone in Leicester was the first person in her family to go to university. In her first year, she applied for and won a Stephen Lawrence Scholarship which has helped her to cover some of the costs of higher education.
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At the end of her second year, she got a letter from the faculty congratulating her on her performance. She said: “It motivates me to do even better.”
Instead of going into her final year, Aneesah will have a 12-month internship role supporting DMU’s work with the United Nations, as a global hub for Sustainable Development Goal 16, supporting peace, justice and strong institutions.
She will continue to volunteer for Islamic Relief – for which she was a volunteer of the year finalist this year – and aims to use her legal skills working with the British Red Cross on its refugee casework.
She said: “My whole life I have wanted to help other people. I’m committed to the things I believe in. This year has been so good. I cannot wait to see what this next year brings.”
Posted on Friday 17 August 2018