Alumna Finds Power Through Empowering Others
A decade ago, Anjuli Sherin ’01 arrived at Mary Washington in the middle of the night, armed with only two suitcases and the unequivocal understanding that an American education is a gift to honor through hard work and commitment. She was 18 years old and had traveled across two continents from her homeland in Pakistan.
The Fredericksburg campus was Sherin’s door to the world, and she enthusiastically entered.
Now, fully immersed in American culture and living in San Francisco, she is an award-winning leader in mental health and a budding entrepreneur.
As the child-parent psychotherapy coordinator for the Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Project, she counsels and coaches teen mothers and their children, teaching them ways to strengthen family bonds and effectively deal with stress and life challenges.
Sherin has had a few challenges herself, including those first overwhelming days at Mary Washington.
“Those were life-changing years,” she said.
Before arriving, she never had been away from Pakistan. She never had eaten at McDonald’s and never had shopped at Target. She was amazed to discover that her college roommate had a car, something that was unheard of for teenagers in Pakistan.
Before choosing the school, she’d seen it only in brochure pictures.
“I was drawn to the beauty of the campus,” she said. “And that’s still one of my favorite things about it.”
She embraced her new life. As a student, Sherin did work study; spent summers as a counselor for the Upward Bound program; studied in New York, Egypt, and Brazil through the International Honors Program; and took in the arts and entertainment on campus.
“The experiences really just opened my world,” she said.
It’s a rare gift for a woman in Pakistan to leave home and get an American education, Sherin said, and it was something her parents had always wanted for their three girls. They instilled in them the independence to explore the world.
Another major influence was her college advisor, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Eric E. Gable.
“He helped me realize that I was interested in working with people,” Sherin said.
He also helped her apply for, and win, a grant to study for a summer in Washington, D.C., where she took on another project – working with inner-city youths.
After graduating summa cum laude in 2001, Sherin moved to California to pursue a career in social services. In 2005, she earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Last year, she received the Emerging Leader of the Year Award from the eWomen Network Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports business women. She also owns a Reiki healing-arts business.
But among her proudest pursuits is her work as an assistant with the Life Empowerment Action Program, which promotes leadership and self confidence and allows Sherin to help others discover their dreams – a gift she hopes the program will train her to take to other countries.
In the few moments she steals for herself each week, she reads and hikes the hills in the Berkeley, Calif., area. She also travels, most recently to Italy. Since arriving in the U.S., she’s visited Pakistan four times, and she hopes eventually to help empower women there to learn about the world and their personal potential.
“For me,” she said, “living my fullest life meant leaving Pakistan and going to Mary Washington.”
– Melissa Haller