Senior Mohamed Malim won this year’s President’s Student Leadership Award for his efforts in founding Dream Refugee, a nonprofit established in 2017 that focuses on telling the stories of refugees.

University presidents who participate in the Minnesota Campus Compact organization select student leaders from their universities who address public issues. President Julie Sullivan was the one who selected Malim for the award.

As a Somali-American refugee, Malim hopes to change perceptions of refugees through his interviews.

“Their story and my story are different, but at the same time we have the common goal of providing and supporting our families in coming to America,” Malim said.

Dream Refugee was presented at St. Thomas’ Fowler Business Concept Challenge where students can pitch business concepts that follow traditional commercial companies or ones that pertain to social issues.

“I learned when I was interviewing these refugees that they rely on Dream Refugee as their story line,” Malim said.

Laura Dunham, associate professor for entrepreneurship, not only guided Malim in creating Dream Refugee but also nominated him for the award.

“I always seek her for advice,” Malim said, “She played a role within the Dream Refugee contribution, guiding me and advising me.”

Malim works with a group of individuals that he recruited to help create a platform “to connect refugees to the broader community.”

“This whole contribution through the community, it’s not even me but my team too. I give credit to the team — the Dream Refugee team,” Malim said.

The award was created in 2010 as a way to recognize students’ great leadership and to inspire other students to live a life of engaged citizenship, according to Julie Plaut, executive director of Minnesota Campus Compact.

“The award can be given either to an individual student or a student organization that models the deep commitment to civic responsibility and leadership,” Plaut said.

The president’s award received its name since the Minnesota Campus Compact has an official coalition with Minnesota colleges’ and universities’ presidents and chancellors.

When selecting student nominees campuses look for “initiative innovative and collaborative approaches to addressing public issues and effective community building and integration of civic engagement into (students’) college experience,” Plaut said.

Thirty-five colleges and universities participate in the Minnesota Campus Compact.

Being the first in his family to graduate high school and go to college, Malim said St. Thomas “truly invests in their students, they want to see their students succeed. That’s one thing I love about St. Thomas.”

Malim graduates in May 2018, but would like to keep sharing refugees’ stories with the world through Dream Refugee.

“My mom always told me, ‘As long as you follow your heart and passion, everything will follow through,’ and I would love to continue doing this project with Dream Refugee,” Malim said.

The recognition event for the 2018 winners will take place on April 19 at Hamline University.

Althea Larson can be reached at lars2360@stthomas.edu.