UB student pursues dream of service

Freshta Masoud arrived at JFK International Airport with a determined, but wavering hope for a better life. She barely spoke English. Her parents and five siblings were the only familiar faces in the teeming crowd. Masoud knew then her life had changed.

That was five years ago.

Today’s Masoud is a far cry from the ninth-grader navigating TSA checkpoints for the first time. She's a senior in UB’s biomedical sciences honors program and a pre-med student. 

And from distributing boxed foods as a teen to dragging carts at care centers, she has offered a part of herself to her community. She continues that work at UB, currently sitting on the boards of two influential organizations on campus: the Honors Student Council and Muslim Students Association.

Plucked from her home country at a young age, she hopes to make change in a world that hasn’t been kind to its womankind.

“There are moments in life when your life completely turns upside down,” says Masoud. “Coming to the U.S. was that for me.”

She was born and raised in Afghanistan as part of a large family in Kabul.

Even as the streets scented in oud and mouthwatering bolanis called to her, young Masoud remained indoors for most of her childhood.

“I spent a lot of my childhood playing in our backyard,” Masoud recalls. “My mom wouldn’t allow us to go outside, since it was not safe. I spent almost my entire life in that family house in Kabul. I loved it there.”

Masoud knew that all of her dreams could never be realized once the school doors were permanently shut for young girls.

She went to an all-female private school in Kabul, an institution whose existence attracted the ire of the militant Taliban.

“At first, we took the bus to school,” says Masoud. “Since our school was threatened by the Taliban many times, my dad decided to have a driver for us. It was a bit safer. The situation was getting worse and worse, as different schools across the city were being attacked. We would go to school not knowing if we would return alive.”

When peace became scarce, the Masoud family took off from Kabul, leaving behind the city where poet Tabrizi envisioned “a thousand splendid suns” behind its walls, and where girls’ pursuits of knowledge were shattered at the hands of its despot. 

The Masoud family moved to Rochester in March 2017 with the help of No One Left Behind, a veteran service organization. It wasn’t easy for Freshta to adapt to the new land.

“It was very difficult at first,” she says. “Back in Afghanistan, I was top of my class. Here, I didn’t speak the language and couldn’t even understand my teachers.”

Despite the barriers, Masoud did not give up.

“I remember doing different things just to be able to speak English,” she explains. “I would read so many books, watch YouTube videos and try different things.”

Within a year, she had mastered the foreign language and ended up in the top ranks of her high school.

Masoud joined the first-year class at UB in fall 2021. She had been interested in community service even before she started at the university, helping transport patients at Unity Hospital in Rochester and distributing boxed foods through Foodlink while still in high school.

But it was at UB where she learned to carve a path for her enduring dream to be a humanitarian.

“Dr. Daniels’ bio-psychology class was a defining moment for me,” says Masoud, referring to the class taught by Derek Daniels, professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. “He was so passionate about his research. I’d never considered going into research before that. I spoke with him during office hours and joined his lab as a research assistant.”

Daniels’ lab was her entry into biomedical research.

She interned at Luna Medical Care in the UB Commons, learning how to take patients’ vitals and perform clinical testing. Along with other UB students, she traveled to Peru last month to assist with outreach clinics run by the global health organization VAW.

Her bio reaches beyond biomedical sciences. She serves as director of community service for the Honors Student Council, organizing service trips and crafting events for honors scholars.

“Freshta is spectacular,” says Darius Melvin, assistant director of the Honors College. “I sincerely believe she has the temperament, intellect and vision to be an incredible leader.”

Her persistent efforts to navigate life in the U.S., her abiding faith and her goal of becoming a doctor come together to complete Masoud’s objective to serve this world.

“As cliché as it sounds, I love helping people and reducing pain for others,” says Masoud. “My personal goal is to get my education done here and go work in another country in the global south, like Syria or Yemen. Even Afghanistan, if it is possible.

“All the opportunities I have today are merely dreams for the women back home,” she says. “I want to do whatever I can with the position I will have one day.”