By Asia Samachar | Thailand |
Final year Thai law student Rasna Rajkitkul has clearly envisioned a path moving forward. And the fourth generation Sikh, born and raised in Bangkok, is bent on sticking to her plan. And it’s an interesting plan.
“My long-term career goals are to work as an attorney at a multinational law firm, and eventually become a judge specializing in technology law,” she tells Asia Samachar in an interview.
Now in the final year of my Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Rasna (Raspreet Kaur Khurana) describes herself as an ‘extremely ambitious, with a strong moral codex’.
For the past three years, the 21-year-old has been an active member of her university’s Moot Society, serving as its president. Moot Society, for those who may not be very familiar with it, is an advocacy society, very similar to a mock court hearing. She was kept busy in October when her university hosted the Thai-led of the Hong Kong Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot Competition.
Tell us something about your parents.
I come from a close-knit Sikh family. My father, Kris (Prabhpal Singh Khurana), was also born and raised in Bangkok Thailand. My mother, Malika who’s originally from Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan. I’ve also got a younger sister, Satkar, who grew up watching me and has now decided to join the same law school and program as myself. As an older sibling, I am so proud, to get to see her grow and become a young adult herself. Both my parents have played a vital role in who I am today. Without their struggles and teachings, I wouldn’t be where I am today. From a young age, my parents have never placed any form of pressure on my education, have allowed me to pursue whatever I desired, and given me the reassurance that they would support me no matter what path I decided to take in my higher education. Having that safety blanket of support given by my parents, allowed me to find my passion and where my interest lay. My parents are both hard workers, and through that, they’ve instilled a rigorous work ethic, determination, and resilience in their children, all the while keeping us grounded in our roots as well. They’ve been there for me every step of the way, and for that, I’m very grateful.
Along with my parents, I’ve been raised in a Sikh community with a strong, supportive, and loving Sangat, without which I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Their constant support and guidance have helped carry me through my ambition of pursuing my first law degree. The past three and a half years, of giving up weekends, holidays, and many sleepless nights to dedicate and work on myself to reach where I am today and to set myself up for bigger things in the future, hasn’t been an easy one. But with the constant support and love given by both my family and my Sangat, I’ve reached here, and hope to only work up from here and make them proud.
What made you take up law?
Studying law isn’t a walk in the park, there are a lot of sacrifices that come with it whether that’s in your personal or social life. Law school also takes a lot out of you physically, emotionally, and mentally. While I did take all those factors into account, I found that Law was an excellent match for me. I found that I had developed great communication and argumentative skills during my years at Ascot International School Bangkok while doing the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. I am extremely ambitious, with a strong moral codex. During my first year in this program, I researched different majors I could apply for when college applications opened. I had come across law and researched as much content as possible. I looked at different law programs, courses offered, sectors within the law I could specialize in, and what I could achieve after gaining a law degree. The more research I had done the more I could envision myself as a lawyer, more specifically a corporate lawyer. This fascination with the field of law got me determined to work through law school to become a skilled lawyer. Once I had set my mind to studying law, and applying for law school I focused all my time and energy on working towards this goal.
What is your ambition?
My long-term career goals are to work as an attorney at a multinational law firm, and eventually become a judge specializing in technology law. I would love the opportunity to work at a firm on cases related to technology law. After gaining experience at a law firm I would work myself to become a judge., and maybe a part-time law professor at a law school. What drew me to technology law, was to be able to specialize in such a sector of law, I would have to stay up-to-date with the latest development in the world of technology. I do consider myself to be a lifelong learner. Knowing that the world of technology is one that would be constantly changing, and I would have to keep myself updated on every development is exciting. As my LLB degree is near its end, I plan to further my education by doing my LLM in the US specializing in technology law.
What helps to keep you on track in your studies?
I would say that my mentality has allowed me to keep myself on track and keep a consistent level of discipline. Within this mindset, I’ve found that you must be passionate, obsessive, relentless, and resilient. I have developed a mindset, where I’m trying to be the best version of myself. Every day I’m trying to become better. My goal since the beginning of my journey in law has been to become the best I could possibly be in law. To do that, I needed to work on the fundamental skills needed in a lawyer and prepare myself as much as possible and as often as possible. I had that passion going into my first year of law school, and I had to consistently keep that passion for the law to keep myself working at a high-functioning level. Through that, the obsessiveness comes through, when you’re so passionate about something obsessiveness comes hand in hand. I became obsessed with working and working constantly on anything that would allow me to reach my goal, and better myself. From my freshmen year, I joined as many workshops, clubs, organizations, and societies as possible. Firstly, so I could gain exposure to different aspects of the law, socialize with as many lawyers and law professors as possible, and gain fundamental skills needed as a law student and aspiring lawyer. Through diving into as many opportunities in my first year, I was able to build relationships with societies which allowed me to work my way up the leadership ladder, to eventually pay my dues and get the presidency at the moot society. Through being the president of the moot society, I found a strong leader in myself and have challenged myself in ways that have allowed me to grow and develop even further.
What else do you do?
For the past couple of years, I’ve been tutoring students from the ages of four to forty-five. I’ve found that the most rewarding aspect of tutoring has been the ability to assist my students to achieve their goals year after year. Through tutoring, I’ve found this ambition to want to teach, and have considered becoming a law school professor sometime down the years in my career. With the support of my professors and my own passion for teaching, I’ve decided to work towards that goal.
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Sikh law student is president of Thai university moot society (Asia Samachar, 21 Dec 2022)
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