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Raisa Alam CC'21

Raisa Alam

Award Recognition

Health and Wellness
Senior Marshal
Raisa is a steadfast advocate and source of support for her peers. She has passionately developed many initiatives to address mental health/disability causes, and education/mentorship for underrepresented students. Through her leadership in Active Minds, Raisa has dedicated a significant amount of time to help raise awareness of mental health through education and wellness events, while empowering fellow students to engage in open, safe discussions on mental health. She serves as a moderator and provides emotional support to students through Unmasked, an anonymous peer support app. Raisa has also served as an Educator at the Lang Youth Medical Program, providing valuable mentorship and psychosocial support to first generation, low income middle school students. She co-coordinates the Black Undergraduate Mentorship Program (BUMP) in Biology, an initiative which pairs black undergraduate students in the biological sciences with research and career mentors. Her dedication to mental health advocacy and building support networks is unwavering.
I am incredibly honored and grateful to be selected for this award. I wanted to thank my parents, older brother, family members, friends, mentors, advisors, and professors for their endless support. As a first-generation, low-income Muslim, Bangladeshi female student navigating Columbia, I really found wonderful communities and sense of belonging through my various intersectional identities. I wanted to shout out the Academic Success Program, Columbia Mentorship Initiative, FLI Network, Club Bangla, Sapna, Muslim Student Association, and Global Ambassador Program for providing me a real sense of community at different times in my undergraduate journey. Lastly, I want to thank the inspiring, passionate team members in the Active Minds, Unmasked, Black Undergraduate Mentorship Program, Research Cluster on Science and Subjectivity, Synapse, COVID-19 Student Task Force, and Lang Youth Medical Program for their incredible hard work and steadfast dedication in such important causes.