Latin School of Chicago

LATIN MAGAZINE » SUMMER 2019 35 Soon after, Jaffer and some other friends decided to get several South Asian American women together to encourage these women to run for office. The group became more formalized and began holding monthly lunches, networking sessions and educational panels to discuss the challenges facing the South Asian community. Jaffer counts herself as one of the founding members of the group, now known as ISAAQ (Inspiring South Asian American Women). Undeterred despite her write-in loss, Jaffer was encouraged by her involvement with ISAAW and decided to run again in 2017 after the 2016 presidential election. "That was a wake-up call in a lot of ways." Jaffer said that Trump winning the national election, "raised the urgency of having different voices in politics. And it was very important in my town, where five of the five [incumbents] were Republicans, to get some diversity of perspective." This time she won. In 2018, two more Democrats were elected, taking over the majority. When it came time to appoint a mayor the following January, Jaffer was unanimously selected by her committee members. She will hold the role for one year, after which she could be reappointed. As a Latin student, Jaffer loved English and history and pushed herself by taking AP classes. She was involved in theater and was in many performances, including A Midsummer's Night Dream, where she played Hermia her senior year. Another highlight her senior year was being chosen editor of ECCO, Latin's literary magazine. Jaffer recalls a politics and history of South Africa class that she took with former Latin faculty Hallie Black. "I often think about the types of truth and reconciliation that had to happen in South Africa and also all of the awful history they had to overcome. It reminds me that we have come a long way, there's been a lot of progress made. But nothing happens without people joining together," she said. "I try to have a historical view on things. I think that serves me well because I see that there are not a lot of new things under the sun. The challenges we face now have been faced by people before." Upper school history teacher Stephanie Stephens remembers Jaffer with fondness and is not a bit surprised that she chose to run for elected office. "She was so joyful and such a positive force. She never expressed self-doubt; she just dove right in. She also had a very strong moral compass," she said. Stephens noted Jaffer's involvement in the Future Leaders of Chicago, a city program still in existence, where a small group of high school juniors from across the Chicago area are selected to learn about civic engagement, leadership and college life. Said Jaffer, "We met with different city administrators to learn about the issues they faced as well as think about creative solutions. I believe it helped me understand more about the process of governance." Said Stephens, "Her life experiences led her to [elected office]." Sadaf Jaffer visits with upper school history teacher Stephanie Stephens and Director of Student Life Tim Cronister at Latin. Theater rehearsal at Latin in the early 2000s.

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