Name: Alicia Strong

Recipient Year: 2017

Major: Political Science

Description: Alicia Hernandez Strong is a graduate of Wesleyan University, double-majoring in Government and Religion. She became interested Islam in the Balkans after meeting a Muslim family who had come to the United States as refugees from Kosovo.  During the spring of her junior year she studied abroad again, splitting her time between Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. Her paper focused on debates among Kosovar Albanians concerning their Muslim identity and how many of these debates were centered on women. Outside of her academic work Alicia is a community activist. Alicia has a passion for doing advocacy work on behalf of marginalized populations and aspires to one day run for office. Alicia's studies prepared her to hold the posiiton of Executive Director at Council on American-Islamic Relations, Connecticut.

School Name: Wesleyan University

Sponsor: ISF