Passion for Helping Others Guides Sidra Siddiqui's Path to Senior Walk

“Ever since I was a young girl, I knew that I wanted to be a schoolteacher,” says Sidra Siddiqui, a freshman elementary education major originally from Karachi, Pakistan. 

As a young child, Sidra struggled in school. She wasn’t diagnosed with a learning disorder and given the accommodations she needed until her family moved to Bentonville, when she was in the 4th grade. She was moved into special education classes the following year.  

“I grew up in Special Ed ever since then,” she says.  

When she was getting ready to start high school, she chose pre-education as her study pathway. “Later, I discovered that I wanted to go beyond teaching in the future,” she says, and set a goal of becoming a school principal. 

Because of her passion for making a difference in her community, Sidra engaged in plenty of volunteer work and leadership education programs. Before she graduated high school, she secured a position working with children as a play facilitator in the Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville. 

While she was in high school, she got the opportunity to tour the University of Arkansas with her mom, “and I absolutely fell in love with it!” she says. “The campus was beautiful.”  

“Fast forward to my senior year: I got to go [back to the U of A] with my ESL group, and I told the ESL director, ‘I can see myself being a student here,’” she recalls. “I really want to go here.” 

And she did, enrolling in the U of A’s College of Education and Health Professions this past fall. 

Sidra describes her professors as a “blessing" and says that she has felt welcomed and supported here at the U of A. “The university's professors are super nice and caring,” she says. “They are really working with me one on one to support my disability, making sure that I achieve my goal of being a school educator.”  

“I've had the best professors, friends and faculty that are willing to support me in every way possible,” she says, “by giving me the right resources and being there for me in every way, whether it might be academic or not.” 

Her next step on the way to Senior Walk? She says she is hoping to become a university ambassador of some sort so she can give back to the campus community. 

For more student and alumni success stories like Sidra's, check out some of our previous #MyPathToSeniorWalk features: Allison Primm, Dhruvi Bhatt and others at our #MyPathToSeniorWalk website. If you'd like to be featured in the #MyPathToSeniorWalk series, please fill out the nomination form.