“BEST OF THE BEST”: Sakina Hassani, left, from Afghanistan will be completing her second master’s degree next month at Clark University and is looking to make her mark in the world of industrial psychology. With extraordinary philanthropic endeavors and much moral support, Maureen Llort, right, has assisted Hassani’s heroic journey from Afghanistan to the achievement of her educational goals in the U.S. (Photo courtesy of Maureen Llort)

By Donald Gilpin

Much has been written recently about the daunting challenges of education — financial, pedagogical, political — from elementary school through college and graduate school. Our society questions relentlessly the value of education in schools and universities.

The story of Sakina Hassani, a Fulbright Scholar from Afghanistan, and her supporters, two Princeton-area nonprofit organizations in particular, might shed new light on the importance of education and what it sometimes takes to acquire that education.

Hassani, a young woman on track to complete a master’s degree in data analytics at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., next month, recalled her early education as a girl growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the early 2000s before the 2021 Taliban takeover.

“I realized that going to school is not some routine daily activity,” she said in a phone conversation earlier this month. “It’s a big thing, because in Afghanistan women or girls who go to school were seen as not good people. My mother asked, ‘Do you need to go to school? It’s not a good thing for girls in Afghanistan.’ I realized that education is a big thing. When you see barriers you understand the value better. We went to school and I noticed that people did not talk positively behind my back.”

Hassani completed high school and was eager to go to one of the government universities in Afghanistan. Long before that time, when she was 9 years old, she had already decided she wanted to be a psychologist.

“I asked my sister, ‘What is a psychologist?’” she said. “I knew they are the people who can help others and give advice and have good relationships with people. I realized that I’m good at talking to people, and I could be a psychologist.”

Hassani was sure that her parents would not allow her to go to university, and her mother confirmed that. “Your father is not going to allow you to go, and you know that people don’t say good things about girls who go to university,” Hassani’s mother declared.

She decided to confront her father. “It was like a scene in a movie, in front of my eyes always,” she said. “I went into the room where my father was sitting.” She told him she wanted to register for the entrance exam and go to university.

“There was a long, long silence,” she recalled. “Then he said, ’Go ahead and register for the exam. We’ll talk about the next step later.’ I was so excited. The whole night I couldn’t sleep. I took the exam. I made choices for programs, and the first was psychology, and I was so excited when I got my first choice. And this time I didn’t ask my parents. I told them, ‘I got accepted to the psychology program, and I’m going to go to the university.’”

Hassani completed her bachelor’s degree in Afghanistan, and started working as the human resources manager at International Assistance Mission (IAM), which she described as the first NGO (nongovernmental organization) in Afghanistan. She was reading books on her own, but realized that she needed to learn more. She needed to study organizational psychology, which was not available in Afghanistan.

Hassani did not know if her parents would allow her to go abroad, but she did know that even if they acquiesced they did not have the money to pay for graduate school abroad. She found out about the Fulbright program and during the process of applying for a Fulbright scholarship, she was told about another scholarship opportunity through the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO), a longtime supporter of international women seeking graduate degrees in the U.S. and Canada. She won scholarships from both organizations, and she was accepted into the master’s program in industrial and organizational psychology at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

“The first semester was really, really tough,” she said. The Minnesota weather was not the problem. She loved the cold weather and the snow, but in addition to the challenges of the English language, there were a few gaps in her academic background, including statistics, which she had to learn from scratch on her own. She graduated in 2021 with a 4.0 average.

“I love education,” she said. “I spend as much time on it as I can. Learning and doing my assignments is not just doing the assignments to turn them in. For me the assignments and being in class are about learning. I take all opportunities to learn.”

She continued, “My plan and Fulbright’s plan was to go back to Afghanistan. My heart wanted to go back to Afghanistan. People in Afghanistan need me more, I thought. I’m going to go back.”

Maureen Llort

It was at this point, shortly before Hassani returned to Kabul, that Maureen Llort, a former resident of Skillman and Hopewell, met Hassani, who spoke via Zoom to Llort’s Princeton chapter of the PEO about her time in the U.S., her family and life in Afghanistan, and her plans to return home.

”She was clearly a standout, a real change-maker,” Llort wrote in a subsequent GoFundMe narrative helping raise funds for Hassani. “We were all so proud to be her sponsors. Not only was Sakina a PEO International Peace Scholar, she was also a Fulbright Scholar, the best of the best.”

In a recent phone conversation Llort added, “She talked about her home, her family, her education, her dreams for Afghanistan, all the things she was hoping to do when she went back. It’s a big deal to have an education like this. She was returning home with dreams for her future and her country. She had this bubbly, engaging personality. We thought she was terrific.”

Hassani returned to Afghanistan and was working happily in a leadership position at IAM when, just two and a half months after her return, the government fell to the Taliban, and everything changed.

“That was one of the two worst days of my life,” said Hassani, as quoted in LLort’s GoFundMe narrative. “All Afghans, including me, were feeling left behind. It was so tough to be broken on the inside but to look like I was fine and strong on the outside for my family and co-workers.”

Hassani received encouraging emails and messages from friends in the U.S. She knew that she eventually wanted to earn a degree in data analysis either online or back in the U.S. She was hoping for the situation in Afghanistan to improve, but things continued to deteriorate, especially for women seeking to work or study outside the house, and particularly for her as a Hazara, a member of a persecuted ethnic group.

“I saw that the situation was getting worse,” she said. “I was not worried about myself, but I was worried about putting my colleagues and my family at risk. I was going to the office, and I was wearing the same clothes I wore before the government collapsed. That was how I could show that I didn’t agree with the Taliban.”

She added, “You know if things change your life, education gives you freedom. It’s all about your mindset. I needed to get out of Afghanistan and come to the U.S.”

To Pakistan, Then the U.S.

The next stop on her dangerous journey was Pakistan. Under Taliban rule, women are not allowed to be out in public except with a male family member. Hassani fled to Pakistan with a friend and her friend’s father. She posed as his daughter. He returned to Afghanistan the next day, and in Islamabad she shared an apartment with her friend, continued to work, remotely, for IAM during the day, and applied to U.S. graduate schools in the evenings.

In the meantime, Llort, using her many years of experience in development and fundraising, had done some major detective work to locate Hassani again and was looking for sources to help Hassani complete the necessary paperwork and find the funds to get to the U.S.

“This totally amazing person was doing everything she could to keep her spirits up,” said Llort. “She was trying everything she could.”

While living and working in Islamabad, Hassani received her acceptance letter for the data analytics master’s program at Clark University. She had only eight or nine days to respond, and to be able to qualify for a visa she had to document that she had enough money to pay her educational and living expenses for a whole year.

“At the moment when we were talking, she had zero,” said Llort. “The only way I can describe this is that it was a God moment. We’d come this far and I said, ‘We’re gonna do this. We’re going to raise this money.’ And we managed to raise $43,000 in eight days.”

The PEO Princeton chapter, and four other chapters throughout the country that had been supporting Hassani, came through again with significant contributions. Many of Llort’s friends from the Nassau Presbyterian Church and others in the Princeton community chipped in. Friends of Hassani from Minnesota, one of whom ran a GoFundMe, all contributed. Her mentor John Fennig, a Minnesota consulting psychologist, reached out to colleagues and friends, many of whom had met Hassani on Zoom, and Fulbright contacts also donated.

And in only eight days, “it happened like a miracle,” said Hassani. Another major benefactor was the Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (AGFAF), a Skillman-based nonprofit that not only provided financial support, but also helped to shepherd Hassani through the complexities of an interview at the American Embassy in Islamabad, which ultimately led to the acquisition of a passport and visa.

At Clark University and Beyond

Hassani flew from Islamabad to the U.S., and in January 2023 started classes at Clark, working towards her second master’s degree, and, according to LLort, “She is safe. She is free. And she’s earning straight As.”

“I’m enjoying the school year,” said Hassani. “Every class I take I love. I don’t know what area or industry I will end up in, but one thing I’m sure about is that I will be a person, an entrepreneur, who creates jobs for women, especially in countries like Afghanistan, and who supports women’s education. I want to continue this great chain of support which I’ve received so far from PEO, from others, and the psychology community. I want to do the same and contribute to other people’s education.”

Hassani is currently pursuing an internship at the International Coaching Federation, and she might work full time there after completing her master’s next month. “That’s exactly where I can use both master’s degrees and my work background,” she said, describing “an amazing project” she’s working on and “super-supportive team members.”

For now Hassani will be staying in the U.S. “I cannot return to Afghanistan while the Taliban is ruling,” she said. “Girls are not going to school and are not going to work.”

Llort described some of the frustrations and rewards of her philanthropic work. “There’s so much you want to do in the world, and there’s so much wrong, and you feel helpless,” she said. “Then there’s this one person in front of you, and you think, ‘Well, I can do that.’”

She continued, “We know what happens if I do nothing, so I’m going to do something, and we’ll see. It was an amazing outpouring of love from so many people. I’ve been passionate about a few things in life, and Sakina was one of them.”