Safia Khan, from Villa Park, Illinois, will be attending the University of Illinois-Champaign

Safia maintained a 4.9 GPA in high school. She was involved with many activities, including the Psychology Club, Deaf Academic Bowl, Principal Student Advisory Committee and Mock Trial. She wrote an article about mental health during the pandemic, which was published by an international mental health organization. She’s been very involved in writing, including poetry. She got 2nd place in the prestigious Highland Park poetry competition, and her poem was published in an anthology. She also was the editor of her school newspaper, was an intern with the international newsmagazine, Muslim, and was published on The Wall Street Journal.

Safia was a student intern at the New York Times, and got a Diverse Voices Scholarship from the them as well as funding for their summer academy. She plans to be on a prelaw track so she can become an attorney focused on helping people with disabilities get better access to education.