Reprinted with permission from the Syracuse Post Standard

Their paths keep crossing 

October 08, 2003 

By David L. Shaw 
Staff Writer, Syracuse Post Standard

If Wells College senior Tazeem Pasha's dream of being sworn in as a member of the U.S. Congress comes true, Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to be there. 

The former first lady and current U.S. senator from New York made that promise publicly, before the entire Wells student body and staff, on the first day of classes at the all-women's college in Aurora Aug. 18. 

It was the second time the two had met, and Pasha, an outspoken admirer of Mrs. Clinton, hopes it won't be the last. 

"When she was the first lady in 1995, she and Chelsea came to the Islamabad school for girls in Islamabad, Pakistan. I was a 12-year-old student at the school, president of my class," Pasha said. 

"I remember the excitement of that visit back then," she recalled. 

"Here was the first lady of the United States, a graduate of an all-women's college, speaking to our all-girl's school." 

In addition to being class president, Pasha was also doing very well academically and was proficient in English. She was one of five girls chosen to welcome Mrs. Clinton and her daughter to the school. 

"I remember she spoke of the importance of women to society. She commended the school for girls for fostering education right up to college." 

Pasha said that back then, she didn't realize the inspiration she drew from Clinton's words. 

"But looking back, she definitely shaped the experiences I've gone through since then," Pasha said. 

On Aug. 15, three days before classes were to start this fall, Wells President Lisa M. Ryerson called Pasha to her office. "I presumed the meeting would be related to my role as student government president," she said. 

The night before the meeting, Pasha said she met with other student government officers and came up with a long list of grievances, ideas and "our vision of the new semester" to present to Ryerson. 

The next day, in Ryerson's office, Pasha said she immediately launched into her concerns. Ryerson listened politely, but soon interrupted to say she called her to the office for a special reason. 

"That's when she said Senator Clinton was coming to Wells the first day of classes. We were amazed. We got up, sang, screamed and shouted in excitement," Pasha said. 

Then Ryerson asked Pasha to give the student welcome to Clinton. That's when she told Ryerson of her meeting with Clinton eight years earlier in Pakistan. "I felt very honored to have been chosen to welcome her to an all-women's school a second time," she said. Ryerson encouraged her to mention her 1995 meeting with Clinton in her welcoming remarks. 

In her remarks to Clinton, Pasha spoke of how she was a role model to her, citing her advocacy of democracy, religious tolerance, human and civil rights, student aid and equal access to education. She mentioned her service in the executive and legislative branches of government and recounted how she read her book "Living History" this past summer while working in New York City. 

"And I asked if it's a coincidence that this opportunity has presented itself twice. I wonder if we'll met again," she said, referring to her plans to run for Congress. 

At the end of her remarks, Clinton thanked her and said she'd be there when Pasha is sworn into office. 

"I have a plan to serve my country in Congress," Pasha said. But first, she will either go to law school, or graduate school, possibly back in London, or will take some time off and then go to Washington to work for a current member of Congress and prepare for her own political career. 

"I will definitely represent New York State. It's been good to me," she said. 

She said she'd love to see Hillary Clinton run for president some day. 

Not surprisingly, her senior thesis topic is a look at campaign finance reform in a hypothetical race for president between Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Dole in 2012.