Samier Mansur ('07)

Samier Mansur is immersing himself in his chosen discipline and giving his fellow students ample opportunity to widen their views of other cultures. As a pro-democracy and anti-terrorism student fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Samier has organized campus visits by such guest lecturers as Qubad Talabani, a representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the United States and son of Iraq's president, and former U.N. official Zakaria Fellah. He also co-organized a campus memorial on the fourth anniversary of 9/11 that included a congressman and community officials. Mansur, a Muslim of Bengali heritage, shares his own rich culture and traditions when invited to speak, perhaps changing minds about faraway people and places.