“How amazing would it be if a program like this existed in Pakistan,” said Bakhtiar, who is from Pakistan. “A crucible for developing future generations of empathetic leaders who can write policy, mobilize collective power, and build systems that advance the rights of the most marginalized.”
After a year of research and planning — and with support from Berkeley that enabled her to explore the idea’s viability — Bakhtiar announced the launch of Teach For Pakistan. Since then, the organization has recruited about 600 talented young Pakistanis to teach more than 30,000 students in high-needs public schools. She has also catalyzed a national movement to eliminate educational inequity, pushed for government investment in teacher-leadership models, and influenced policy changes around teacher recruitment and training.
“It was the people of this great institution who emboldened a fairly inexperienced 26-year-old to think she could start an organization capable of national impact,” Bakhtiar said.
Recognizing her efforts and achievements, UC Berkeley honored Bakhtiar with the 2024 Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, given annually to an alum with a distinguished record of service to their country. Chancellor Rich Lyons presented her with the award and a cash prize of $35,000 at the Class of 2024 Winter Commencement.
“Given the international character of our faculty, student body, and curricula, the global orientation and impact of our university, and the extent to which we are driven to make our world a better place, I am hard-pressed to think of an award that is more closely aligned with our mission and purpose,” said Lyons. “Khadija is the perfect embodiment of all that the award seeks to celebrate and support.”
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"I want to live in a world where children and women are safe."
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"I want to live in a world where there is education equity."
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"I want to live in a world where everyone is happy."
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"I want to live in a world where there is education and homes for everyone."
Commenting on her journey, Bakhtiar said that people didn’t think the program would work in Pakistan “because children from low-income backgrounds can’t make such rapid progress, or because public schools and school systems are too far gone to change,” she said. “It felt like I could see what lies beyond the mountain but others couldn’t.”
But staying the course has reaped rewards. “I would have missed the moment where students are no longer ‘beneficiaries’ of a teaching program but ask in every school and classroom I visit, … ‘Tell us how we can help the larger movement,’” she said. “I might not have seen the young people who were floundering and overwhelmed in their first months teaching grow to become school leaders, teacher trainers, entrepreneurs, [or] government advisers supporting learning for hundreds of thousands kids.”
Tooba Akhtar calls herself “one of those people” whose life was “fundamentally altered’ by Bakhtiar’s work. Destined for a job at a top multinational company, Akhtar joined Teach For Pakistan’s first cohort in 2011 instead and taught 150 girls.
“My students, who could not read a single word of English in grade 6 at the start, were able to not just write academic essays by the end of the two years, but more importantly, had the will, ability, and desire to pursue their own ambitions,” she said.
Beyond this professional achievement, Akhtar has also found a sense of hope — despite the fact that many of her peers have left Pakistan for opportunities elsewhere.
“I have continued to stay,” Akhtar said, pursuing a purpose “that one day, all of Pakistan’s children will experience an education that enables them to be loving, thinking, and engaged people.”
