# @utaustintx on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CdqjqZXuJsL
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/18664104-utaustintx-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/3e1a74f14d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-05-17T15:55:37.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UT Austin (@utaustintx) — https://gondola.cc/utaustintx

## Caption

Let’s get right to the point: Kiara Kabbara can and probably will do anything she sets her mind to. So don’t bet against her becoming the first Black U.S. senator from Texas and then U.S. secretary of education. With a wide-open smile and an easy laugh, she radiates the kind of charisma that comes in handy for politicians.

At her core, Kabbara, one of our outstanding graduates from the class of 2022, cares most about two interrelated ideas: representation and equity.
As for representation, she says seeing other Black women in leadership positions is paramount, and she is doing her part: She is UT’s first Black female Student Government president in 31 years.

When it came time for college, Kabbara, a basketball player, considered walking on at Kansas. But after praying, consulting with her parents and assembling a full ride’s worth of scholarships, Texas became the obvious choice. She was recruited into the University Leadership Network, which includes scholarships and other student support. When she won the Student Government presidency, she received a Texas Exes scholarship designated for that officeholder. She also studied in Costa Rica on a Texas Global scholarship.

After graduation, she plans to pursue a joint law degree and MBA. Then she wants to return to Dallas, run for the Texas House of Representatives and work her way up from there. “In the political world there are so many committees I can sit on setting policy for small business and nonprofits. I feel like at the end of the day, all of my passions are going to come together.”
She encourages incoming Longhorns not to be afraid of leadership. “Even though I’ve done a lot on campus, I really held back from being the person and the leader I knew I could be. I thought these upperclassmen — they’ve got it! They don’t need me. Join the org. Do the leadership. Go full out.”

Read more about Kiara and meet other graduates at news.utexas.edu/class-of-2022 #UTGrad22

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 1,884
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 29

## Tags

utgrad22

---
Copyright (c) Gondola