Intern Spotlight: Sonia Mehra, Davis Dentons Brown

Spotlight: Sonia Mehra was a legal intern with ALL Iowa this summer where she assisted Afghan nationals with the immigration process in Iowa.

She reflects on her experience and highlights the power of sharing her story with others.

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It was my honor to spend this summer at Dentons Davis Brown helping Afghan nationals in the immigration process. As the daughter of an Afghan immigrant who came over in the 1970s after the Soviets invaded, it was an incredibly fulfilling experience to help people in the same position as my family with my legal education. I found myself reflecting on their experience often and gained a greater appreciation of what they endured.

A conversation that stood out to me was with an interpreter, who I will not name for his privacy. After sharing that my family immigrated from Afghanistan, he began to share his story and his hopes. He wondered what he could do for his family, outside of supporting them monetarily while they were still in Afghanistan. 

He wanted to do his best to ensure his children could have the best possible life here in America. I reflected on what I had learned from my family growing up and realized what an important role my parent’s and grandparent’s emphasis on family and education played.

I shared how my family had always prioritized spending time together and how consequential it was to have that sense of support and belonging to thrive in a new place and how my family viewed education. 

While our system isn’t a true meritocracy, they always proclaimed that this was the only country where you could go from surviving off of food stamps to becoming nurses, engineers, and successful business people.

As we talked, I began to realize the power that exchanging stories had and began to share it with others. I didn’t expect to later hear from some of my colleagues that my family had served as a role model to some of the people I had spoken with. I am glad that I was able to provide a sense of solidarity to those in similar situations as my family.