Maria Khan
12th grade
Plymouth Canton Educational Park, Canton
Hello, my name is Maria Khan, a Pakistani American from Canton, Michigan! I joined this project in order to showcase the stories of those close to me. Right now, there’s a lot of dehumanization of Asian Americans, especially Desi Americans, so I wanted to show my participant’s stories well in order to fight against that dehumanization.
In my free time, I love to experiment with various forms of art like digital and photography. I also love reading and cafe-hopping (P.S Canton has so many good options!!)
My mother was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and she moved to America in 2002. From 2004 to 2009, my mother lived in Houston, Texas; from 2004 to 2006, she lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota; and from 2011 to now, she lived in Canton, Michigan. She is currently studying nursing at Wayne State University. In her video, I tried to show her relationship with her mother and how it gave her strength in a new area, and I wanted to highlight her interest in other cultures and people.
Palki Arora was born in Ludhiana, India, and she moved to Auburn, Alabama when she was 22. She is currently an environmental engineer for the State of Michigan. In her video, I highlighted her struggle of moving alone to America for education because a common representation of Asian international students is that they are taking the opportunities of American students. However, she had to deal with being away from her mother, someone who was deeply close with after her father’s passing. I also showed her passion for her religion and culture as she talks about how she passes tradition to her own children.