People associate the term supernatural powers with abilities like teleportation.
But people forget that one of the most valuable powers a human being can actually have is empathy, the ability to connect and truly understand someone on a deeper level.
American government teacher Tasneem Khan has cultivated this power through her work in social services, bringing these experiences with her to her life as a teacher at Cal High.
Khan started her journey in college, where she fell in love with a psychology class she took. She liked that her professor encouraged civic engagement, a practice where students would visit different places and work with people in the real world.
“I loved it so much that it made me want to help people,” Khan said. “I wanted to throw myself into that realm where I wanted to pick up everybody’s pieces.”
Following high school, Khan earned her degree in psychology and sociology at San Jose State University. During this time, she had internships connected to social services, and she conducted a lot of field work in different communities.
One of Khan’s jobs was at the San Joaquin County Jail in a section called the recovery house. The house was a mandatory 12-step program for people that had driving under the influence offenses. Additionally, she worked at a drug recovery facility.
After college, Khan continued her work in many counties, including San Joaquin and Santa Clara, working with abused children, battered women, homeless people, crack addicts, and runaway teens.
At a battered women’s shelter, Khan saw difficult and heartbreaking situations.
“You would see women that came in with all kinds of physical injuries,” Khan said. “You see women coming in with little children and now you think, where is that child today?”
Khan was part of a counseling team in the women’s safe house. She would help these women devise an escape plan to help them get out of the dangerous situations they were in.
Although Khan has created a positive impact through her work, there have been instances where her own safety has been jeopardized.
“[When] we were working with the homeless population in San Jose, we went out to places where they had these encampments, and we went to deliver food,” Khan said. “And the next thing you know, I had a gun pointed to my head.”
Khan recalled it being a quick and weird experience. She remembers being in a slight shock afterwards.
“When you go out to all these different places, you don’t know where they’re going to send you from one day to the next,” Khan said. “Everything is a shot in the dark.”
Being in all these different environments also helped Khan develop her mental strength because of the dangerous and disturbing situations she tackled.
As a little girl, when people asked Khan what she wanted to be, she always said teacher. She realized that it was time to pursue this career path when she found herself constantly praying for her safety in the work she did.
“I love being with the students, they’re so down to earth,” Khan said. “They’re easy to connect with, smart, well spoken, and I just love to be around them.”
Senior Armaan Latheef saw the way Khan incorporated her previous work into the classroom.
“It was definitely clear that a lot of what she taught came from her experiences,” Latheef said. “She said a couple of the lessons, and some of her opinions were directly linked to her social service work.”
He mentioned that he could observe how Khan’s work affected her views about the importance of civil liberties and criminal justice.
“Teachers who might be politically biased can affect how you learn certain topics, especially in a history or government class,” Latheef said. “She’s unbiased in the way she teaches.”
Senior Kate Baca echoed this sentiment.
“She’s very factual,” Baca said. “When we did our 30 minute government presentations, we weren’t allowed to have any sort of bias.”
Senior Ved Joshi mentioned how Khan’s projects could be challenging sometimes, which helped students learn more.
“We did a research paper and debate, and I’m more prepared for researching in college,” Joshi said.
Teachers had positive thoughts about Khan as well.
“She is really knowledgeable and passionate about government and civil service,” economics teacher Stephen Farwell said. “She doesn’t care what people’s opinions are. She cares if they have one.”
Farwell also noted how active Khan gets when it comes to voting and making sure that students are aware there’s people on campus to help with voter registration.
“I keep seeing the statistic that 40% of Americans didn’t vote in this past election,” Farwell said. “To Ms. Khan’s credit, getting people into the sphere of being able to vote is really important so that people start participating in that process.”
Khan picked up on a tiny shift in a student’s behavior once. When she asked this student if everything was okay, the student burst into tears, saying that nobody had asked them about what was going on. After bonding with Khan, the student would write emails and notes on a daily basis, thanking her for checking in on them.
“It’s the little connections that you make that have a really profound effect on a student,” Khan said.
With her 16 years of teaching at Cal, Khan said the one thing that she has made a cornerstone of who she is that she doesn’t want to embarrass her students or reprimand them. She wants to create a safe space for them, and she respects them as they respect her.
“When I was going through my credentialing phase, this is where I wanted to be,” Khan said. “My goal was to teach at Cal, and here I am, so I feel blessed.”
