# @ucsandiego on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CWI7gr3MhGq
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/75466157-ucsandiego-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/fac9160557.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-11-11T14:50:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC San Diego / UCSD (@ucsandiego) — https://gondola.cc/ucsandiego

## Caption

“I’m originally from Iran, then moved to the east coast with my family. As soon as I turned 17, I became a citizen. A month later, I joined the National Guard for 6 years during the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. I went to college, law school, got my MBA, then started working. When I came to work here at UCSD, I found out about the Veterans Staff Association. I started attending their meetings and became a regular member, listening in and volunteering when I could. Last year, when the police brutality and racial justice protests started and the military got pulled into the conversation about law enforcement, I proposed putting on lectures led by history experts regarding how the military has historically dealt with issues around race, ethnicity, gender identity, etc.
In August, everything about my identity came to a complete crash when we pulled out of Afghanistan. The veteran community’s collective consciousness just awakened in an immense way. I started volunteering for #AfghanEvac, a coalition of 100+ organizations working together to provide services to help people evacuate out of Afghanistan. The primary way I’m helping them is with their privacy and data security needs.
This is easily the most American thing that I’ve ever been a part of: grassroots, a bunch of veterans and volunteers saying “No, we need to do better.” And we’re going to do better, not only by ourselves, but we’re going to engage at every level of the government. Let your community and elected officials know that you care about it. Engage with the news about this humanitarian crisis on whatever media platforms you are on. Keep it at the front despite it leaving the news cycle.
Remember that there is not just one way to be a veteran, it’s not just what is portrayed by the media. We are a diverse community and have different voices and things to add. What we all have in common is an incredible voice in the political system. If something is important to you, your veteran voice is going to lift that issue up, so engage as much as you can and know that you have one of those special super power voices in US politics.”
-Pegah Parsi (she/her), Veteran of the Year, Campus Privacy Officer #TritonStories

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 2,307
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- **Comments:** 24

## Credits

No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post.

## Tags

tritonstories, afghanevac

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