Alexandria Student Receives Heart and Soul Leadership Award

Bowdoin College Student Mariya Ilyas Makes an Impact on Her Community

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(L. to r.) Maine College of Art President and MCC board member Don Tuski, University of Maine-Farmington President and MCC board chair Theo Kalikow, Mariya Ilyas '13, MCC Executive Director Liz McCabe

BRUNSWICK, ME (05/03/2012)(readMedia)--

 http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/1bowdoincampus/009444.shtml

(BRUNSWICK, Maine) - Mariya Ilyas, of Alexandria, and a math and sociology major at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, is one of six Maine students selected to receive the Student Heart and Soul Award, recognizing exceptional leadership both on campus and within their community.

Since arriving at Bowdoin, Ilyas has been involved in local, national and international communities through service and engagement coordinated both on her own and through the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good.

From teaching English to Somali and Iraqi refugees at the Portland Adult Education Center, to helping low-income students navigate the legal system and serving on the Common Good Grant committee, Ilyas has assumed leadership roles to help others gain as much from the community as she has.

Ilyas recently led her peers on an Alternative Spring Break to Washington, D.C., to look at issues of poverty and homelessness from a policy perspective while engaging in direct service in the nation's capitol.

Ilyas has also been pivotal in re-establishing the Muslim Students Association at Bowdoin, which organized an interfaith service held on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. A passion for journalism prompted her to return to her native Pakistan to work with the Al-Imtriaz Academy, a high school serving underprivileged students. Funded by a Davis Projects for Peace grant through Bowdoin Career Planning, Ilyas developed and taught a journalism course that included not only course work, but field trips to local news and radio stations.

Maine Campus Compact is a consortium of 18 higher education institutions dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement and service learning in higher education.