Farzan Hussainzada '25
Fighter for immigration justice
The JFK Award winner for 2025 is Farzan
Hussainzada, a Global
Development major in CALS. An Afghanistan
national, Farzan attended a Turkish high school in Afghanistan, where a family
friend working
for USAID suggested he apply to Cornell. He did so, and his life
changed. As a Science and Technology Pre-professional (P3) program
alumnus, a Cornell Tradition student, Quill and Dagger member and
recipient of the Barber Conable Award, Farzan leveraged his
impressive skills to strengthen Afghan students’ presence on campus
and turned his attention to legal service and studies to address the
pressing needs of migrants generally. Internship experiences with
the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Schuyler County
Public Defenders Office and a California organization working with
asylum applicants undergirded a career shift from global
development. Farzan now envisions a career in immigration law,
after two years of work experience to secure the funds to continue
his education.
As he neared graduation, Farzan received several awards: the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, the Cornell Tradition Senior Recognition Award, the Office of Global Learning Global Citizen Award, and the Department of Global Development Global Citizenship Award.
Farzan’s referees speak of his empathy and humility along with notable analytic skills and mature and thoughtful approaches to his role in contributing to immigration justice. In reflecting on the P3 Program, Farzan wrote “As an aspiring immigration lawyer, I want to possess and embrace hope, resilience and human connection.” He impressed the JFK review panel with his determination and the pressing timeliness of his public service project.
Read about Farzan's award
at the Einhorn Center site
Two additional applicants with strong leadership
and service backgrounds have received Honorable Mentions and were
honored along with Farzan at the Einhorn Center’s annual awards ceremony
in April, 2025. Alumni Board member Jared Genser
represented the Board on that occasion. These students are:
Molly Goldstein, a Government and Near
Eastern Studies major, and Andrew Juan, a Health Care Policy
major in the Brooks School. Molly’s passions are negotiation and
environmental conservation, which she hopes to bridge in a diplomatic
career focused on environmental peacekeeping. Andrew, too, seeks to
combine two devotions: to rural health care as a primary physician, and
to applying rigorous social science research in the primary care
setting. Both are exemplary students whose commitment to public service
make them worthy of this new recognition by the Class and the JFK Alumni
Board.
