2023-2024 Scholars

(will complete their projects in summer 2024)

Grace Werner
Carleton College

For my project, I would address period poverty in the Twin Cities by making reusable menstrual pads for those who struggle to find and afford menstrual supplies. I then hope to distribute the pads to menstruators in detention centers.

Jaleta Fanta Tesgera
Concordia College, Moorhead

In order to equalize the gaps and effects of the 18 years of experience and information international students missed out on, I want to build a website archive that is backed up by the community platform Slack. The website is designed like an archive to provide a bulk of resources, guides, and links to basic information.

Naomi Gebru
Concordia College, Moorhead

I intend to set up a flexible mentoring program for the international students at Concordia College by International alum. I hope to build a system of networks that requires a minimum amount of time from our alums and students yet has a long-lasting impact.

Fadimah Mohamed
Hamline University

My idea is to help underprivileged students in Minnesota to gain access to STEM education. I hope to work with organizations to address the underlying factors of the educational disparities in STEM fields and to provide the students support and resources to build their skills, develop their knowledge and confidence to pursue career opportunities in STEM.

Mariame Kane
St. Catherine University

I will create a summer-long financial literacy program for first-generation college students at my mosque. This project is important to me because I believe that by teaching the younger generation these skills from early on, they will be able to thrive financially.

Nimo Mohamed
St. Catherine University

Many individuals struggle with malnutrition, disease, and related health issues, which are often caused by a lack of access to healthy food options, limited information about nutrition and exercise, and a stigma about seeking help for psychological wellness. My idea is to create a comprehensive health and nutrition program to address these issues among elders in the East African Community, specifically Ward 6 of Minneapolis, where there is the greatest concentration of East African People.

Theresa DeGross
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota

The project I propose for Winona is crafted with the intent to address both the brokenness of plastic recycling and the 30 percent of food that is lost to spoilage in America. My hope is to adapt the waste reduction systems in place and take inspiration from what has worked for comparably similar counties, so as to assuage doubt and cultivate commitment toward an actualized composting campaign.

Adbirahman Abikar
University of St. Thomas

I plan to create a software application that can help bring important resources that students might have been missing out on that were simply hidden from them, ranging from school resources to daily resources, such as financial literacy.

Cheyene Bialke
University of St. Thomas

Inside the walls of Brooklyn Center High School sits an empty green room that is waiting to be used. I would like to take that empty green room and create a Brooklyn Center newsroom. This would be a space where students can broadcast different events around the community and highlight student success.

Natalie Larson
University of St. Thomas

The big picture of my idea is connecting restaurants and food preparation organizations to local farms by collecting their food scraps and delivering them to be used as animal feed or compost product. It is my goal to create an affordable way to minimize food waste while simultaneously supporting agricultural practices.

2022-2023 Scholars

(will complete their projects in summer 2023)

Manu Hope Kannare
Augsburg University

This project will create a program that focuses on the trauma we have experienced internally by discussing our experience in a community setting. This program will work with the YMCA to provide a familiar space for children, teenagers, and young adults that identify as Black or a BIPOC community member.
 
Phuong Kim Le
Concordia College, Moorhead

This project will develop a system, a website, that lists issues related to the dimension of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that students might face when they study outside of Concordia (for now, it will mainly be for study abroad) and offers guidelines and/or supports if possible.
 
Dasiyah Franklin-Carter
Hamline University

The goal of this initiative will be to empower youth to take action in their neighborhood through service activities with the collaboration of a local organization.
 
Anthony Meng
Hamline University

One of the ways we can address food apartheid is by bringing affordable and healthy food to people while simultaneously ensuring their autonomy and dignity. This project will collaborate with the Food Group, specifically, their Twin Cities Mobile Market (TCMM). The Twin Cities Mobile Market is a market on a bus that conveniently brings affordable, fresh, and high-quality groceries directly into neighborhoods around St. Paul and Minneapolis that don’t have easy access to full-service supermarkets, grocery stores, or food shelves.
 
Louise Ba
St. Catherine University

This project will serve a community of young girls from 7th-12th grade by working with a Girls Inc. cohort at the YWCA in Minneapolis. The project’s purpose is to reshape the existing curriculum to help advocate for and support girls dealing with sexual violence.
 
Emilila Garrido Vasquez
St. Catherine University

This project will provide a totally cost-free Introductory bilingual dance class for children, implementing the principles of ballet to serve as a structured class model that is easy for children to follow.
 
Caitlin Anderson
University of St. Thomas 

In an effort to better serve disadvantaged members of the Twin Cities, this project will create a food-rescue delivery system (App) that would enable members of the community with free time and the desire to give back, to deliver groceries from local food shelves to their clients at their own convenience.
 
Liliana Valverde Ortiz
University of St. Thomas 

This project will educate, inform, and provide resources to those who are in ESL community in Burnsville.  This would include first generation students, focusing on Spanish speaking students, and students whose parents struggle with English, as well as students who have had to put aside school to help their family.
 
Alexander Vue
University of St. Thomas 

This project will focus on creating a network between Hmong Americans who are experienced in different career paths and connecting them to high school and college students in a mentorship program.