Written by: WSCL Marketing Team
From Being Overlooked to Lifting Others Up
Long before starting law school at Western State College of Law, Natalie Hakimpour saw how difficult navigating the law can be for immigrants. In fact, she experienced it firsthand, coming from an immigrant family herself. Dealing with these complicated systems without guidance, especially for immigrant communities where language and the legal process are barriers, can quickly become overwhelming. Those experiences made her path to law about much more than the prestige, or professional success, that comes with it. It became something personal.
A rising 2L, Natalie has already become a familiar face across campus through her work as the Social Media Manager of the Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA), along with recently being elected a Student Bar Association (SBA) 2L Class Representative for the upcoming academic year. But there’s much more to Natalie than titles and accomplishments. The moment she starts talking about advocacy, identity, or community, you can immediately feel her passion. There’s a confidence in the way she speaks, but also a warmth that makes people feel understood.
“I really wanted to pursue a career that helped unrepresented communities,” she says. “Coming from an immigrant family, getting contracts where my parents misunderstood things, I wanted to be able to help people understand those things. We move through life trying to survive, and I just want to make surviving a little bit easier.”
For Natalie, everything she does comes down to one thing: supporting people. Through her work with MELSA, her leadership within SBA, and her future advocacy goals, Natalie consistently tries to create the kind of supportive community she once wished for herself.
Becoming a Voice for Others
Natalie’s confidence and powerful voice are qualities that were shaped by difficult experiences she had early on in her life. “Coming from a place where I never felt welcomed or listened to, I always wanted to make people feel like they weren’t alone,” she says. Natalie explains that growing up petite in stature pushed her to become more outspoken and resilient from a young age, and that energy still radiates through her fierce personality today. Through those experiences, she grew into someone who always speaks up and gives a voice to those who feel unheard.
During a seventh-grade mock trial exercise that proved pivotal for her, Natalie found herself on a team of mostly quieter students competing against a much more outspoken group. Instead of shrinking under pressure, she stepped up. “I had to be twice as loud and twice as strong for everybody,” she recalls. “I wanted to make sure the louder voices didn’t overcome the rest of my group.” After the exercise, her teacher, Mr. Medina, pulled her aside afterward and told her he saw something special in her: passion, determination, and a drive to advocate for people who fall through the cracks. “He told me, ‘You want to be a voice for people. You want to make sure the people that are not heard are heard loud.’” And that was the spark that set her future legal journey in motion.
In a similar experience in high school, her lacrosse coach noticed those same leadership qualities. As captain of her lacrosse team for three years, Natalie became known for her competitiveness and uplifting nature. “My coach told me that leadership isn’t about being the biggest or most controlling person,” she says. “It’s about making people feel just as important as everybody else.” Today, that spark still radiates strongly in her approach to leadership, advocacy, and community at Western State.
Building Community Through MELSA
MELSA quickly became one of the places where Natalie felt most connected at Western State. As the organization’s Social Media Manager this past academic year, she helped spotlight its events and community while helping students feel welcomed, represented, and included. “What drew me to MELSA was its mission to uplift diverse voices,” she explains. “I wanted to be part of a space that makes students feel safe and represented.”
Natalie describes MELSA as a diverse, collaborative space where students learn from one another, celebrate each other’s cultures, and make new connections. The organization brings together students from a wide range of Middle Eastern backgrounds, including Persian, Arab, Jewish, and Armenian. MELSA also welcomes students of other backgrounds. “It’s not just Middle Eastern students,” she says. “It’s everybody who wants to be part of a welcoming culture.” Some of her favorite moments have come from cultural events where students share food, traditions, and stories from their backgrounds. “The food, the laughs, the smiles, it just brings everybody together,” she says. “It creates this collaborative space where everyone is happy and loving and raw and honest.”
Natalie believes community is especially important in law school, where the pressure and workload can sometimes become overwhelming. Through MELSA, she found a space where students support one another while also learning more about the cultures and perspectives around them. “It has created a sense of belonging for me,” she says. “It makes law school feel less isolating and more collaborative.”
Embracing Both Her Jewish and Persian Identity
As someone who is both Jewish and Iranian, Natalie says her background has strongly influenced how she sees the world and the law. “I think it gave me a very unique perspective,” she says. “Having this Persian cultural upbringing but a Jewish religious upbringing has given me a unique lens in how I view law, in a traditional but adaptable way.” She credits both identities with teaching her the importance of understanding different perspectives, welcoming others, and staying grounded in empathy. “It motivated me to advocate for communities that feel misunderstood or misrepresented,” she explains. “It opened me up to helping multiple different kinds of people.”
Natalie also spoke passionately about the significance of Jewish American Heritage Month and what it means to see institutions like Western State actively celebrate heritage and identity. “Jewish American Heritage Month is a time for pride, reflection, and recognition of the contributions and resilience of the Jewish community,” she says. “It means a lot to see Western State actively celebrate all of these heritage months. It shows a genuine commitment to inclusion.”
The traditions that mean the most to her are centered on family, togetherness, and connection. She especially values the weekly Shabbat dinners that bring her family together. “It ensures we spend time with each other every week and continue to strengthen our bond and love,” she says. “You really are just one with each other.” Those values of family, community, and compassion are deeply ingrained in the way Natalie approaches both her personal life and her budding legal career.
A Rising Leader at Western State
Natalie’s leadership has already made a strong impression across campus. In her upcoming role with the SBA as a 2L Class Representative, she’ll be able to advocate for her classmates while helping strengthen student engagement throughout the law school. “I’ve been told that I’m someone who brings people together,” she says. “That was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been told.”
Natalie believes leadership is about people and connection. She wants others to feel welcomed, supported, and comfortable speaking up. To her, good leadership is about making sure everyone feels valued and included. That perspective also carries into the way Natalie approaches the legal field. She believes the profession requires much more than technical knowledge. You need to be empathetic, resilient, and genuinely understand people. At Western State, Natalie says she found a law school environment that reinforces those values.
She also praises the school’s supportive faculty, scholarship opportunities, and student-focused culture. “The professors push our strengths and help us with our weaknesses,” she says. “I was expecting law school to be competitive and isolating, but Western State has been the opposite.”
As a first-generation student from a refugee immigrant family who earned a full scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, Natalie says financial support has played a major role in making her educational journey possible. “Scholarships are survival to me,” she says. “That’s how I knew I could pursue law without feeling crushed by financial stress.” Combined with being one of the most affordable law schools in California, Western State ultimately felt like the right fit.
Looking Toward the Future
Natalie hopes to build a legal career centered on advocacy and helping people better understand the systems that affect their lives. After all, legal knowledge only matters if people can actually understand their rights and feel empowered to use them. “We go to school for years to understand these legal concepts,” she says. “How can we expect everyone else to know these things?” She hopes to help break down the legal systems into language people can actually understand. “That means working toward systems that are less intimidating and more equitable for everybody,” she explains.
Above all, Natalie believes meaningful change begins with passion. “That spark can always come from yourself,” she says. “Everybody has a passion inside of them, and when we let that passion thrive, that’s when change can really happen.”
Heading into her second year at Western State, Natalie is already growing into the kind of advocate she hopes to become: compassionate, fearless, community-driven, and deeply committed to helping others find their voice. “I am grateful to be part of a community that values both professional growth and personal identity,” she says. “Law school is a challenging journey, but having the right environment makes all the difference. Western State has been that place for me, and I hope it’s that place for someone else too.”
And if her first year at Western State is any indication, Natalie is already becoming exactly the kind of advocate she once needed herself.
