This quarter, Khadija Bakhtiar, a Fulbright alumna and founder and CEO of Teach for Pakistan, was awarded the 2024 Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award by the University of California, Berkeley. This recognition showcases her commitment to transforming education in Pakistan and highlights the impact of over 600 young leaders empowering more than 30,000 students in underserved communities across the country.
Bringing it back home after 50 years
In 1973, former President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the first Pakistani to receive this annual award – Bakhtiar is the second after five long decades.
The award annually honors a Berkeley alum with a distinguished record of service to another country. Bakhtiar received a master’s degree in public policy in 2010 and it is here that she learned about Teach for America.
“For a long time, most people thought that [Teach for Pakistan] wouldn’t work because talented young people would never waste their time teaching, or because children from low-income backgrounds wouldn’t be able to make such rapid progress, or because public schools and school systems are too far gone to change,” said Bakhtiar. “Without the Fulbright scholarship that set me on this journey and the continued support and encouragement I received, Teach for Pakistan would not have achieved the milestones that brought us to this point.”
