What impact do you hope to have on higher education policy?
The impact I want to leave for students in the higher education policy space is rooted in one simple belief, that the students most affected by policy are the same students who are most often left out of the rooms where those policies are made. I want to change that.
As a first-generation Arab American student pursuing my MSW while running a nonprofit and navigating real financial barriers to education, I have lived the gap between what higher education policy promises and what it actually delivers for students like me. I want to use that lived experience as evidence, not just anecdote, in policy spaces. I want students from immigrant families, from low-income communities, from communities that have historically been excluded from higher education to see themselves reflected not just in the student body but in the policy conversations shaping their access and success.
The impact I hope to leave is a more inclusive, culturally competent, and community-accountable approach to higher education policy in Michigan, one that centers student voice, addresses systemic barriers to access and completion, and treats education as a right rather than a privilege.
What’s one thing people should know about higher education in Michigan?
Something I wish more people knew about pursuing higher education in Michigan is that the barriers to access are not equally distributed. Michigan has incredible institutions and resources, but the pathways to those resources are not always visible or accessible to everyone. Students from Arab and immigrant communities, students navigating financial hardship, students who are the first in their families to go to college, they often do not know what they do not know. Scholarships go unclaimed. Wraparound support services go unused. Policy protections go unknown.
Michigan also has a real opportunity to lead in culturally responsive higher education given the diversity of communities across the state, particularly in Southeast Michigan. But that potential is only realized when institutions move beyond surface-level inclusion and commit to structural changes that reflect the communities they serve. Higher education in Michigan can be transformative, but only if we are honest about who it is currently built for and who it is still leaving behind.
