Ethnicity
Asian
Reading
Young Adult
I read books multiple times per week
Sarah Memon
745
Bold Points1x
FinalistSarah Memon
745
Bold Points1x
FinalistBio
Rising honors senior at the University of Pittsburgh that aspires to be a future human rights attorney
Education
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
Bachelor's degree programMajors:
- Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies
- Law
Miscellaneous
Desired degree level:
Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
Graduate schools of interest:
Transfer schools of interest:
Majors of interest:
- Law
- Political Science and Government
Career
Dream career field:
Law Practice
Dream career goals:
Lawyer
Research
Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other
Biomedical Research Institute of New Jersey High School Research Program — Student Researcher2019 – 2019
Arts
Two River Theater
Theatre2019 – 2020BTHS Arts & Entertainment
ActingLegally Blonde, Cinderella2017 – 2019
Public services
Advocacy
National Speech and Debate Association — Competitor2019 – 2021Volunteering
4-H — President2017 – PresentVolunteering
Girl Scouts of America — Camp Organizer2019 – 2021Volunteering
Muslim Center for Greater Princeton — Teacher Assistant2018 – 2019
Future Interests
Advocacy
Politics
Volunteering
Go Blue America Thought Leadership Scholarship
America: the land of democracy, or is it?
Our gerrymandering policies call into question if American democracy is gradually dying. With these policies, state legislators can draw congressional district lines to their advantage to dilute their opposition and maintain a majority of congressional seats.
Consequently, voters feel discouraged from voting because they understandably feel their vote will not make a difference, giving in to the cycle of gerrymandering. When minority party voters do not vote, it makes gerrymandering seem less significant because the opposing party’s popular vote gradually diminishes. Furthermore, party leaders are less likely to compromise due to gerrymandering. Incumbents have no incentive to appeal to the opposing party to gain additional votes because their congressional seat is practically guaranteed. This causes outdated thinking to remain. Lastly, Republicans commonly utilize gerrymandering to suppress specific demographics of voters. In the recent 2020 Presidential election, district ballot drop-off locations were inconveniently located farthest from African American and Hispanic populated neighborhoods supplemented by voter ID laws and voter purges.
There have been several rulings to lessen gerrymandered districts, but there is still a long way to go, as partisan gerrymandering is not subject to federal review as of 2019. Therefore, actions need to be taken on a state-by-state level to combat gerrymandering. Some states, such as Alaska, California, and Washington, have created non-partisan committees to redistrict; however, it can be difficult to find non-partisan members as humans innately are biased individuals. Therefore, an alternative to this solution would be removing human bias and utilizing a computer algorithm to create districts. These districts would be created based on a list of criteria determined by each state. Some sample criteria include compactness or the number of voters. While these are all potential solutions, every state needs to actively implement them to rebuild America’s democracy.