Arabic minor Yousra Mahmoud has been named a 2023-2024 Humanities in Action scholar.

We CU and the Humanities Research Institute announced the new cohort, which is composed of five students from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in late May. The students will begin the program in fall 2023. 

Now in its second year, the Humanities in Action program (HIA) aims to remove some of the financial barriers that prevent undergraduate humanities students from taking advantage of community engagement opportunities.

Selected by a competitive application process, HIA scholars are then matched—through the Community Learning Lab in the School of Social Work—with a community partner to address a vital area of need in the Champaign-Urbana community. The students will also attend workshops to strengthen their community partnerships and build connections with like-minded peers, and will learn more about HRI’s opportunities and the broader community of humanists at Illinois.

Mahmoud is a double major in sociology and English with a minor in Arabic. The daughter of two Sudanese immigrants, she is a Chancellor’s Scholar who works as a programming intern at the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center and is the vice president of Mariama Black Student Union.

Humanities Research Institute

Editor's note: This story first appeared on the Humanities Research Institute website.