From the president
Mia Strubel Iram ‘25 is a sophomore and current fellow with our Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) in the Peace, Conflict, and Democracy issue area. She is particularly interested in the power of dialogue as a strategy for addressing social issues and bridging polarized divisions, whether ideological, religious, or cultural. Mia has exercised tremendous leadership both on campus and in the local community, including leading the college’s new collaboration with WAANO, a nonprofit providing support to Somali refugee youth in our rural community; co-facilitating a campus dialogue entitled “Does my vote really matter?”; serving as a trained dialogue facilitator through Students Engaging in Essential Dialogue (SEED) program; and participating in interfaith dialogue through the Council for Religious Understanding. She’s been committed to this work for some time, including through her pre-college engagement with Hands of Peace, an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue program. She is a natural community-builder, bringing an inclusive and collaborative approach to her emerging leadership on campus.
Personal Statement
My name is Mia Strubel-Iram and I’m a sophomore Political Science/Anthropology major. I’m passionate about facilitating opportunities for diverse communities to talk across differences as a critical step in building understanding, repairing relationships, and effecting social change. To do this work, I was selected and trained as a dialogue facilitator through Students Engaging in Essential Dialogue, working to strengthen ties among Carleton’s diverse student-body. I previously participated in Hands of Peace, an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue program working to bridge differences and I currently engage in interfaith dialogue through the Council for Religious Understanding, a space for multi-faith dialogue. Seeing first-hand the power of dialogue, I’ve focused on building understanding to lessen devastating impacts regional conflicts have, particularly on migrant women and children. I’ve used dialogue facilitation skills as site-director for WAANO, which provides academic support to Somali refugee students in Minnesota, and working at Kuchinate, an economic and psychosocial collective for asylum-seeking African women. Listening and learning at WAANO and Kuchinate has reinforced dialogue as a tool that builds understanding. I’ve seen the power dialogue has to make a difference in my own communities and hope to continue using dialogue to bring people together and foster a more just society.