Arjun Rawal is a first-year Forty Acres Scholar, but he is already making an impact at UT. Rawal was recently elected as a member of the Committee on Academic Affairs for the Liberal Arts Council.

As a member of the committee, Rawal will focus on facilitating discussions of academic issues and making sure that those problems become more transparent between the student body and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

"I really want to use Liberal Arts Council as a medium to implement my change on the University," Rawal says.  Though only a freshman, Rawal has big plans for his upcoming years at UT.

"I would really like to become an executive officer," Rawal says. "That's the long-term goal. I want to help impact the University in ways regarding academics."

Rawal has had the opportunity to work on the passing of the new University honor code. He is grateful for the experience because it gave him insight into how legal documents are written and organized.

"I'm considering law school, so I figured any experience I can get now, as an undergraduate, would help me understand what that future could look like," Rawal says.

As a Middle Eastern studies major, Rawal hopes that his time with the Liberal Arts Council will help prepare him for the future.

"I'm really interested in foreign policy," he says. "By majoring in Middle Eastern studies, I'll have enough knowledge of the cultures and the traditions of that region of the world to help craft policy that will take those into account."

Rawal says that he is incredibly grateful to be a Forty Acres Scholar. "To be a scholar," he says, "is really the best. I feel like it is the most incredible opportunity here at UT. I'm excited to have the best four years here at UT that I possibly can."