Semoi Khan, a first-year architecture student at New York's Pratt Institute and winner of American Banker's Young Women's Leadership Award, has always been passionate about social justice. In September 2020, as her school year at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan began amidst a global pandemic, she founded the New York Student Justice League DoSomething Club, aimed at motivating young people to address local and global issues including racism, animal rights, climate change and voting rights.
Khan, whose club averaged 40 members, hosted meetings for several campaigns in New York City. Her club was founded in connection with the organization
"I assembled a group of board members and hosted meetings accommodating my members' availability times and would advertise on Facebook and Instagram to remind them to attend meetings," Khan said, describing her role as president of the club. "I also got better at outreach and speaking skills because I would be constantly on Zoom, talking to my members, urging them to speak and share stories and get involved in activities. I learned how to speak to people in other organizations, to government officials. I learned how to write an email to an agency."
One of the club's projects that Khan feels most proud of is the "Disrupt Racism" campaign. This campaign focused on defining terms used when discussing racism, making posters to advertise businesses owned by people of color, and initiating discussions related to race in America. "The more conversations we had, the more we realized this is what this is, and this is what this is called, and how to prevent ourselves from doing these things and how to tell others this is not right," said Khan. "People were telling their own stories and they were recognizing what was happening around them."
Khan and her fellow club leaders focused last year on the issue of voting rights. "To play an active role in our community, you should know who is on the ballot and what they stand for," she said. She worked on disseminating information on social media about where and how to register to vote.
Khan is also an aspiring architect who has found ways to merge her passion for architecture and sustainability with her passion for social justice and leadership. "I realized my feelings on social justice can also relate to my feelings on environmental justice because they are closely tied together, since those most disproportionately affected by our legal system are also the most negatively environmentally affected. They go hand in hand," she said. "I want to be a political architect, where my architecture influences politics. I will push people in such a way to realize something is wrong and make change."
"Architects are leaders," said Khan. "Architects have a big group of people that they're working with. You plan everything out based on not just design and art, but based on how it affects the community and its surroundings. Architects have to think, how will this design be good for my surrounding community and the environment?"
To pursue her interest in architecture, Khan has been a part of multiple architectural programs through the Cooper Union, including the school's Program for Senior Design, and was the treasurer for the architecture club at Stuyvesant. In addition, she has been a design engineer since December 2020 at
Although architecture and social justice are two of Khan's main passions, Khan is the first to admit her "interests are really all over the place." In high school, she was the founder of the henna club, StuyHenna; a photographer for the photography show; and a volunteer for the Stuyvesant Red Cross club. She is also interested in art and grew up wanting to be a performer.
One of Khan's strongest beliefs about leadership is that it cannot be a solo role. "The more people there are, the better it is," she said. "The more hands that are working on a project, the faster it gets done; the more efficiently it gets done. A good leader needs to recognize that other people are really good for a second set of eyes, and another hand is always great."
"I'm a better speaker, communicator, and outreacher, and I think I'm more humble after my leadership. I've had other people bring their strengths to the table where I was lacking, and I learned from them," Khan said.
