Mariam Masoud has just started her first semester at Brooklyn College. Although she’s still undecided about her major, she is positive she made a sound decision in her choice of school.
     “So far, it’s really nice,” she says. “What I love the most is the diversity here. And because the College offers a variety of different majors, I feel like it’s a good place to figure out what I want to do.”
     While she has been on campus for only a few weeks, Mariam has already joined two Muslim student groups and says she’s looking forward to exploring other extracurricular activities that will help her compliment her classroom experiences.
     One thing she says she didn’t expect from college life was the large amount of reading she has to do. “So far, I have at least three hours of reading every night,” she says. “This is going to be a lot of work.”
      Born in New Jersey to parents who came to the United States from Jordan, Masoud says she received several scholarships to attend college, most notably the Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship, which is for students who graduated from New York City high schools with a B average or better. She attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn and lives in Bergen Beach.
     She enjoys reading—her favorite books include A Thousand Splendid Suns,