Congratulations to Alfie Scholar, Nizama Djuderija, Criminal Justice/Administration of Justice ’18, who has been awarded a 9-month Fulbright Research Grant Award to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Alfie Scholars Pa Ousman Jobe (Business and Finance ’18) and Gabriel Narvaez (Sociology ’18) have joined the team at Project Pilgrimage. Project Pilgrimage “builds interracial and intergenerational community … by studying, understanding, and gaining inspiration from transformational movements and individuals, and then taking action.” For more details, visit http://projectpilgrimage.org/

When Alfie Scholar and Seattle University College of Nursing graduate, Julia Mariga, found out she was selected by her cohort of 75-80 fellow nursing students to speak at the Pinning Ceremony, she was “genuinely shocked.” She expected someone more “vocal” to be elected and saw herself as a “fly-on-the-wall” in her classes, gently guiding her peers towards various resources and support. “It feels good to know I’ve been helpful to people even when I thought I was just doing a kind thing. It’s good to see people actually benefited from my help,” she says humbly.

I’ve been sick for the past week. I woke up this morning coughing and fighting to catch my breath. I put my hand on my chest gasping for air; when I finally caught my breath I smiled and cried a little because in that moment I knew I meant everything I said in my presentation yesterday: “I’m going to tell you right now, I want it so bad I’m going to die trying,” when speaking about my education. I also thought about what my father told me one day while we were having breakfast: “I always dreamed about being a speaker, but I don’t have that gift. I’m not educated, but sometimes when I sleep I have this dream that I’m in front of people speaking and they are listening to what I have to say.” My father was never given the opportunity to live out his dream, but what kind of son would I be if I didn’t live it out for him.

This past summer and fall four of the Alfie Scholars studied and worked abroad. Over the next few weeks, we will post their reflections on their time as global citizens. Our first author is Nizama Djuderija, who studied at the American University of Bosnia and Herzegovina.