My name is Miriam Saffo and I am a junior double majoring in Political Science and International Studies with a minor in Arabic. I recently completed four semesters of Arabic driven by my families Iraqi heritage in an attempt to better understand my culture and communicate with the greater Arab community that is increasing steadily especially in my home state, Michigan.
Last summer I was given the opportunity to intern for an attorney specialized in family law who worked with several Arab families due to her own Middle Eastern background and proficiency in the Arabic language. My own knowledge in Arabic helped to give me the upper edge as I found myself constantly having to utilize Arabic during my daily duties of answering calls and interacting with the clients and their extended families. With aspirations to be a future attorney myself, God willing, this experience truly opened my eyes to a new side of the legal world I had never expected and led me to re-explore my goals. I came to realize with the help of Loyola’s mission that with the growing numbers of the Arab American population their need for legal assistance would increase as well and require an understanding of their culture and traditions to better handle cases especially those of a more sensitive nature like divorce. With both the language skills and cultural knowledge I obtained from my time as an Arabic student and my own family it has become not only my resolve but also my responsibility to focus on helping this community, my community, through my future endeavors.