An excited crowd marched down Saint Louis University’s campus on April 11, waving colorful flags as a symbol of cultural pride. Those gathered to watch along West Pine Mall snapped pictures of the Parade of Nations, a beloved tradition that marks the end of Atlas Week. 

Launched in 2001, the Atlas Program, housed in SLU’s Center for Global Citizenship (CGC), aims to “increase awareness of the global issues that confront us today in an effort not only to promote discussion but to inspire and inform action,” according to the program’s webpage. During the annual program, SLU community members and organizations sign up to host events in line with the week’s theme. Major parts of the planning are done by Atlas interns, who take a semester-long course to organize Atlas Week. 

However, the program might be dissolved next year due to limited funding. Luella Loseille, who has run the program for about seven years, said she was informed in the fall of 2023 that Sam and Marilyn Fox decided to end donations to the Atlas fund after supporting the program for over 20 years. Loseille declined to comment on whether the potential cut of the program is related to federal policies targeting diversity programming on college campuses. 

“…Atlas Week always tries to rise to the moment of [the] current global climate to serve the needs of the community. How we go about doing that in [the] future is still under discussion,” Loseille said. “But I believe initiatives such as Atlas Week are more important than ever before as it encourages all on how we should we approach global problems of injustice and inequity, from the local level to the global. How to become better global citizens that ‘set the world on fire.’”

The 2025 theme, “From Inequality to Justice: Transforming Global Health through Social Change,” explored the intersection of global health, culture and justice. From events showcasing various cultures to educational presentations and workshops, including a Signature Symposium with guest speaker Daniel E. Dawes, the 25th annual Atlas Week brought SLU and St. Louis community members together for over 60 events. A selection of events is featured below.

Parade of Nations and Billiken World Festival

As two concluding events of Atlas Week, the Parade of Nations signaled the start of the Billiken World Festival on April 11. 

Organized by the International Student Federation, the festival featured student performances and local vendors selling products like jewelry or offering henna. There was also cultural food from many St. Louis businesses.

Amal Rizvi, a 2025 Atlas Program Publicity intern, said that hosting and attending events like the Billiken World Festival allowed her to see firsthand how powerful such spaces are, as they allow people to come together, celebrate their cultures and share their stories. 

“SLU, while just a micro-community, reflects the diversity of the world around us, and Atlas Week made that global perspective feel present on campus,” Rizvi said. “These spaces are vital, and not just during Atlas Week, but throughout the year. I believe it’s our responsibility to continue creating and supporting opportunities like this that inspire connection, understanding, and cultural appreciation.”

Healing in Exile: Stories of Struggle and Strength in Palestine

Around a dozen gathered in the Chaifetz School of Business and listened to SLU seniors and 2025 Atlas Program Publicity interns Ansam Ayesh and Hoda Elbeshbeshy present on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Palestine. Ayesh and Elbeshbeshy highlighted the lack of necessities like shelter, hygiene, education and food that people living under siege in Gaza face on April 9. 

Attendees also heard from Linda Badran and Maisoon Batghouti, volunteers from the St. Louis chapter of Heal Palestine, a non-political non-profit organization that helps Palestinian children rebuild their lives through health, education, aid and leadership. To a small but attentive crowd, Badran and Batghouti moved the audience by describing their work with Palestinian children who have come to St. Louis from Gaza for medical treatment.

Badran and Batghouti both said that their efforts make a small impact when thousands of children need treatment, just like those they have worked with, such as 12-year-old Hadi Zaqout and 7-year-old Tala. Still, they said they are grateful for the impact they can make through Heal.

“For me, it’s an opportunity; I think that most people in this room can identify that they feel frustration at our inability to do anything. It’s a small way we can make a difference, we know that we’re impacting these families every day, it’s rewarding, it’s a limited reward, but it keeps us going,” Badran said. “There’s a purpose and a cause, and for Palestinians, just expressing their resilience, coming together, building a community, is everything in exile. It’s a lifeline, not just to these children but to future generations here as well.”

Palestinian Tatreez Art Workshop

Led by Amera Khalil, local small business owner of Stitched by Amera, the Palestinian Tatreez Workshop in the CGC on April 11 invited attendees to try the traditional Palestinian art form. A dozen attendees learned about the history and significance of the art before practicing stitching themselves.

According to informational cards provided by Khalil in the supply kits given to attendees, tatreez is an intricate form of Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery that tells stories of Palestinian perseverance, love, struggle and life. While patterns may vary from village to village, motifs of important events or nature are common across traditionally stitched dresses known as thobes. With a needle, colorful threads and an aida fabric, attendees learned to stitch coffee bean motifs, which Khalil said represent Palestinian hospitality. 

For sophomore SLU student Sofia Ibrahim Prendiville, tatreez is more than just a craft. She said it represents a connecting experience for Palestinians in the diaspora, especially during difficult times.

“I started doing tatreez in a time when it felt like to be Palestinian was to experience heartbreak after heartbreak with so little of the joy that our culture can bring,”  Prendiville said. “I needed to feel a connection to a homeland that felt so far away, so I picked up Wafa Ghanaim’s book Tatreez and Tea and learned the basics.”

First Nationalism Then Identity: The Case of Bosnian Muslims

Mirsad Kriještorac, Associate Professor of Political Science at Broward College, led a lecture for attendees in Davis-Shaughnessy Hall on April 11 to explore how historical roots, experiencing genocide and resistance led to the development of the distinct Bosniak identity for Bosnian Muslims.

Kriještorac’s book, First Nationalism, Then Identity: On Bosnian Muslims and Their Bosniak Identity, served as the basis of the lecture. The book focuses on Bosnian Muslims’ rare and years-long process of emerging as a nation and asserting their identity, especially under the consistent aggression they faced in the former Yugoslavia and during the Bosnian War. 

“Facing the threat of genocide and under a UN-imposed arms embargo, Bosniaks nevertheless defended the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state and place for people of all backgrounds, honoring the multiethnic heritage of Bosnia and its traditions of interdependence and mutual respect,” said Patrick McCarthy, Associate Dean of University Libraries and Medical Center Library Director.

McCarthy, who organized this Atlas event, believes that Kriještorac’s presentation is especially relevant as SLU will become the new home for the Center for Bosnian Studies, which is relocating from Fontbonne University this summer. 

The University News’ Ulaa Kuziez contributed to this report. 

Muslim communities have been bustling with activity throughout the month of Ramadan. On and off Saint Louis University’s campus, some people volunteered at mosques, cooking for worshippers or neatly setting tables for their fast-breaking meals. Others hosted communal events, welcoming Muslims and non-Muslims to share in their celebrations. Many were deep in reflection, trying to improve and grow in faith. 

Ramadan, which will end around March 30 this year, is the 9th month in the lunar calendar in Islam and is considered the holiest month of the year for Muslims. Throughout this month, 2 billion Muslims around the world fast from sunrise to sunset, engage in spiritual reflection and connect with their communities to achieve the ultimate goal of Ramadan: getting closer to and becoming more conscious of Allah (God). Muslim and non-Muslim SLU students, faculty and surrounding communities were among those who participated in the festivities. 

During Ramadan, multiple mosques in the St. Louis area prepare daily iftar – the meal to break the fast – open to the community, including the Masjid Bilal Islamic Center. Founded in 1965 as one of the first established mosques in St. Louis. Masjid Bilal sits adjacent to SLU’s campus, only a few feet from DeMattias Hall. Students, especially SLU’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) members, helped prepare iftar at Masjid Bilal alongside community volunteers. 

From chopping fragrant herbs to filling and sealing homemade samosas, the volunteers pulled off daily Ramadan dinners for approximately 150-200 people a night, everyone playing a key part. 

Ansam Ayesh, the MSA’s secretary and a senior studying accounting at SLU, said volunteering at Masjid Bilal reminded her of how close people across the St. Louis Muslim community are to one another.

“I really enjoy it… Once you see the community and you see how everybody’s there, willing to help, it really just de-stresses you, in a sense, because there’s so many helping hands during Ramadan, like there’s not just one singular person doing it, it’s everybody,” Ayesh said.

The daily cooking is led by dedicated community members, including two women who have each spent around 20 years feeding their community every Ramadan. One of them described the volunteers as a family. 

Mamoun Benmamoun, an associate professor of international business at SLU’s Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, regularly leads prayers and attends iftars at Masjid Bilal. As a Muslim professor, Benmamoun said he is fortunate to witness the strong bond between SLU and neighboring Muslim communities.

“SLU has proven to be a supportive neighbor, offering generosity and support in numerous ways, such as supplying much-needed parking for mosque events,” Benmamoun said. “Beyond logistical assistance, SLU students have contributed to uplifting the wider community. They have volunteered at Masjid Bilal’s free clinic, tutored minority children, and have been actively involved in the House of Goods (Baitulmal), a nonprofit initiative that provides free essential items to families in need, refugees, and the homeless.”

The MSA at SLU is also especially active during Ramadan, hosting multiple events that invite Muslims and non-Muslims to experience the blessed month. Larger events like a collab iftar with the Middle Eastern Student Association, Pakistani Student Association and Turkish-American Student Association and the annual MSA Fastathon attracted hundreds of attendees for evenings of community building and a free dinner. 

During the Fastathon on March 25, around 300 SLU community members broke their fasts and reflected on the meaning of Islam together, said Fatema Rehmani, the MSA sister’s president and a senior studying public health at SLU. 

“Ramadan is always my favorite time of year. At Fastathon, when we have people who are fasting as Muslims, and individuals trying it for the first time, collectively breaking our fast and sharing a meal – it’s a really beautiful, unifying moment,” Rehmani said. “It reminds us of the importance of empathy for those in need, the importance of gratitude, generosity, humility and compassion.” 

Alanna-Paige Pinkney, a freshman pursuing a bachelor’s in entrepreneurship and a minor in service leadership, said she came to the Fastathon event to learn more about Islam from Muslims. 

“Having MSA events like this, or in general, where people can just congregate like this and feel very proud of their culture, and then to be able to share it with others…is just very powerful,” Pinkney said. “[When it feels] like the world is on fire all the time, it’s really nice to just be in community.”

Beyond larger events, MSA E-Board, members and faculty made efforts to include curious members of the SLU community in their Ramadan traditions. On one occasion, Rehmani and MSA vice president and biomedical engineering junior Nawal Said hosted several SLU professors at Masjid Bilal. 

This visit on March 19 was part of Patrick Cousins’s annual efforts to invite his colleagues to the mosque. As the director of pastoral formation in SLU’s division of mission and identity and the MSA’s faculty advisor, Cousins said many SLU community members are unaware of the mosque’s proximity and how Ramadan is a chance for them to experience it. 

Cousins said SLU is fortunate to have a mosque right next to campus, something most universities do not have. As a believer in fostering friendship and dialogue between different religions, Cousins sees Masjid Bilal and the MSA as resources to do that. 

“For me, the real dialogue happens when you’re sitting down with somebody at the table and just hearing what matters to them,” Cousins said. 

The group with Rehmani and Said shared laughs and stories over iftar as the two spoke of their Ramadan experiences and favorite traditions from childhood to college. The professors also asked questions that ranged from basics about Ramadan and fasting to what Muslims believe and the ways they worship. 

Against the backdrop of the group’s uplifting discussion were the voices of other worshippers as they ate their meals, volunteers as they hurried to offer food and drinks to people and children as they played in the prayer area. 

“I think the average non-Muslim, when you hear, ‘We’re going to fast for a month,’ thinks ‘This sounds terrible,’” Cousins said. “But then when you talk to a Muslim, they’re like, ‘It’s my favorite time of year, I love it,’ and it’s because it’s so family-focused and community-focused. And that’s a side of Islam that I regret to say does not get presented in media, is how much it’s focused on community.”

Cousins first started working with the MSA around 12 years ago and speaks highly of “how wonderful, warm and generous our Muslim student community is.” Some MSA E-Board members have shared positive reflections on their experiences at SLU with Cousins.

“I tell people this all the time, in 17 years here, nothing has been as transformative for me as hanging out with Muslim students as much as I have,” Cousins said. “I try every year to check in with the E-Board and just say, ‘How has your experience been at SLU? What’s it like being Muslim at a majority non-Muslim school, especially a Catholic school?’ And the answer is the same every year. That is, they say ‘We love being here, because this is a place where nobody bats an eyelash when we want to talk about spirituality, faith and values.’”

Ramadan’s impact is evident among Muslim and non-Muslim SLU community members, echoing a deep significance and shared values between those observing this month and the university at large. 

“Ramadan holds a deeply special place in my life, both as a Muslim and as a professor at SLU,” Benmamoun said. “It is a time of spiritual renewal, self-discipline, and reflection, but it is also a season of profound communal bonding. Fasting cultivates patience, empathy, and gratitude — principles that resonate with all of us at SLU.”

Standing in an empty B-School breakout room, I check my reflection in my phone one last time, ready for take one. I have rehearsed the script I wrote for myself multiple times, but the familiar sense of anticipation knowing I will now say it settles in me. Most of all, though, I am eager to see my video come together. Microphone in hand, I press record, waiting a few seconds before cheerily saying my go-to intro: “Hi Billikens!” 

My end-of-senior-year self did not see becoming a “SLUfluencer,” a term friends have used for my job creating social media content for SLU, as part of my college plan. However, seeing an Instagram story on @slu_official recruiting “Project Billikens” to make content about their college experience was an opportunity I found when I least expected it, but perhaps most needed it. 

Project Billiken is a team of student content creators supervised by the Division of Marketing and Communications at Saint Louis University. We make content about our college experience for SLU’s official social media platforms, covering a wide range of academic programs, collegiate years and content styles. The summer before my freshman year, I was not 100% sure about the organizations and roles I wanted to fulfill on campus yet, but I knew I could not pass this one up.

I am someone who always has my digital camera in hand, ready to snap a moment — with flash, of course. I have spent hours pouring my creativity into designing hundreds of projects on Canva. At the same time, I love a good conversation or any chance to make a meaningful connection. I love to tell stories, as my identity is a collection of many of them. In an increasingly connected world and the age of social media, I have found content creation to be a means of fulfilling all of these passions. 

In high school, whether I was managing a nonprofit’s Instagram page, designing flyers as the unofficial poster-designer of my class or capturing the tens of thousands of photos and videos in my camera roll, I felt seen and represented creatively and socially. While I have always been a creative person, I also grew up in a tight-knit Muslim community and spent much of my time creating content centered around my identities and stories. I was not initially sure how I would take these activities and feelings with me to SLU. 

I knew I was not the first incoming college freshman facing this transition that felt worried. However, as a visibly Muslim woman, a first-generation college student and someone seeking opportunities for creativity and connection, my hopes were mixed with valid worries. Would I find a space for me? Would I just have to make my own?

When I submitted my content creation portfolio for consideration for this role, I showed up as my authentic self — showcasing my identities, communities and passions just as I wanted to present them at SLU. Now, I strive to keep showcasing that in my content for the role. 

I show my favorite coffee shops and local spots to put a spotlight on how much my hometown of St. Louis has to offer. I highlight what my week looks like juggling my studies and involvement to help other students feel represented. I share clips showcasing my many identities and stories, from going to the mosque to designing pages for The University News, because all of them play a role in making my college experience what it is.  

Creating content for Project Billiken has helped me step into spaces that have embraced me and make my own spaces. It takes courage, even for a self-proclaimed extrovert like myself, to turn on the camera and talk to thousands of my fellow Billikens with confidence, but doing so has helped me build that courage. 

Looking back, this role was somewhat of a catalyst for the rest of what I became involved in at SLU. Preparing to see your face and words projected on social media is pretty good practice for putting yourself out there elsewhere on campus, so I did. Beyond just other opportunities, though, this role has allowed me to pursue deeper drives in my content creation.

I am driven to keep making my content when my sisters in the Muslim Student Association tell me about their excitement seeing someone who looks like them on SLU’s social media pages. I am driven to keep making my content when my friends, family and SLU community remind me how much my content could help even one student feel more represented. I am driven to keep making my content by my belief that all of us have a place at SLU.

Being a “SLUfluencer” on the Project Billiken team is a role I cherish not just for giving me an outlet for my content creation passion, but for giving me an outlet to find my voice and roles at SLU. 

These days, as a new semester is in full swing, I take short clips here and there with my phone or snap pictures with my pocket digital camera in pursuit of my next project, excited at the prospect of continuing to make meaningful content true to me and, I hope, true to one or more of my fellow Billikens.

All content under the opinion section is not a direct reflection of The University News, but expresses the opinion of the writer, not necessarily the organization as a whole.

Over a hundred students and community members packed the Sinquefield Stateroom in DuBourg Hall, their English and Bosnian conversations filling the air. As an upbeat cultural tune began to play, all eyes turned to the folk dancers. The Bosnian flag hung near the dancers as the crowd watched them perform.

The crowd was gathered to celebrate Bosnian Statehood Day (“Dan Državnosti” in Bosnian), which commemorates the day Bosnia’s multiethnic statehood was restored after Nazi Germany’s occupation, at an event hosted by Saint Louis University, Webster University and Maryville University’s Bosnia-Herzegovina student organizations on Nov. 22.

St. Louis is home to the largest Bosnian community outside of Bosnia. After The Bosnian War (1992-1995) forcibly displaced over two million people, more than 60,000 Bosnian refugees settled in St. Louis, including in “Little Bosnia” located near SLU’s campus.  

Asmira Alagic, an associate professor of chemistry at SLU and the vice president of academics for Saint Louis Balkan American Connection, said the deeper significance of events like these is to celebrate Bosnian culture, build community and gain new perspectives on the experiences of the Bosnian diaspora. 

“We’ve gone through a lot,” Alagic said. “It’s really a community of resilience [and hard work]. Now we’re kind of at the state where we can celebrate people who are doing well, and we want them to do even better.”

The evening program began with an introduction from the president of SLU’s Bosnia-Herzegovina Student Association (BHSA), followed by a presentation by Webster University’s Bosnian Cultural Club, a performance of a traditional cultural dance by the Kud Djerdan group and dinner from Taste of Bosnia.

As a first-generation American, SLU senior and BHSA president Elma Bjelevac said events like the Statehood Celebration help her connect with her Bosnian culture and share it with other members of the campus community.

“I feel like as students come from out of state to Saint Louis University, a big part of it is realizing a lot of our commuters are Bosnians. A lot of your classmates who you don’t know are Bosnian,” Bjelevac said. “It’s a really important part to let our community know.”

Senior student Amir Ugarak and BHSA’s chair of public relations grew up with strong ties to his Bosnian identity. Ugarak shares Alagic and Bjelevac’s belief that creating community on campus is important.

“A sense of community is a really good feeling that you get, you feel like you belong somewhere,” Ugarak said. 

In addition to showcasing Bosnian culture, the celebration shed light on significant parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s history. 

Patrick McCarthy, the faculty advisor for SLU’s BHSA and one of the authors of “Bosnian St. Louis: Between Two Worlds,” used his brief speech at the event to describe the significance of Statehood Day and upcoming anniversaries. 

“Bosnia regained its statehood in 1943 as a country with one of the strongest anti-fascist movements in Nazi-occupied Europe,” McCarthy said. “Next July, we will memorialize the 30th anniversary of the Genocide in Srebrenica with a walk downtown, a community picnic and a series of weekend events to mark those tragic days.”

Alagic, Bjelevac and Ugarak all emphasized the resilience of the Bosnian diaspora that they have observed in their community work and through their experiences as Bosnians. 

“I feel like my parents didn’t come here for me to forget about my culture. They kind of came here for me to grow with it and embrace it,” Bjelevac said. “A key part of how I identify is being Bosnian, just because I feel like that really kind of sums up how I am, how driven I am, my struggles, my goals. I think it just draws a lot of attention back onto what my parents went through to let me even continue my education at a university like Saint Louis University.”

Nearly 200 Saint Louis University (SLU) students and community members filled the Wool Ballroom in the Busch Student Center for the Muslim Student Association’s (MSA) annual fall dinner on Oct. 12. The sold-out event was open to people of all faiths from SLU and the greater St. Louis community. 

Several of the 11 MSA executive board members took to the stage throughout the evening to share reflections on the event’s theme, “Remembering Palestine,” and inform attendees about organizations they are fundraising for. Keffiyehs and the Palestinian flag were the focal points of the decorations, and many attendees and board members wore keffiyehs and traditional Palestinian clothing. 

The program included a recitation of the Holy Qur’an, prayer, dinner, a talk by SLU professor Mamoun Benmamoun and fundraising. 

Nawal Said, the MSA vice president and a junior studying biomedical engineering, said the fall dinner was a success because of the positive atmosphere and how everyone came together in celebration. The MSA holds a special place in Said’s heart as more than just an organization, she said, but a community where she finds support and belonging. 

“Being part of the MSA has enriched my life in so many ways… It’s a space where we uplift one another, practice our faith and contribute meaningfully to our campus, making it a truly invaluable part of my university experience,” Said said. 

Returning and new students alike attended the event and expressed an appreciation for the connections and space the MSA has given them. Samiha Khan, a senior pursuing a bachelor’s in bioethics, has attended the fall dinner for three years. Khan, who was previously on the MSA executive board, said the MSA community has helped her better understand and connect with her Muslim identity.

“The thing I value a lot about Muslims in this space, and Islam generally, is the community I get from it,” Khan said. “I didn’t grow up in a place with a really cohesive Muslim community, so I feel like the past couple years have really allowed me to build a more solid sense of what it means to be Muslim.”

Kewuser Jemal, a freshman pursuing a bachelor’s in computer science, said she attended the fall dinner for the first time on Saturday to have fun with friends and meet new people. 

“MSA is a safe place for me to practice my religion and also get to know other people that are like minded and generally connect with new people,” Jemal said. 

Throughout the night, board members encouraged attendees to donate to humanitarian organizations like The Human Development Fund and HEAL Palestine. They also talked about supporting Islam in Prison, a nonprofit that helps incarcerated Muslims uphold their faith, maintain their dignity and reintegrate into society after release. 

Fatema Rehmani, the MSA sisters president and a senior studying public health, said organizing this fall dinner with dedicated people and raising awareness about important issues was enjoyable and rewarding.

“I am grateful that we were able to speak about this issue that our community is deeply affected by,” Rehmani said. 

During his 30-minute talk as the featured speaker, Mamoun Benmamoun, an associate professor in the Department of International Business at SLU’s Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, said students should use their college education for causes beyond themselves. 

Benmamoum encouraged students to understand that the knowledge they gain from their degrees is not just for them. He also told attendees that he is proud of how young people have been proactive about creating change, especially with their pro-Palestine advocacy over the past year. 

“This is not about [getting] an ‘A’ or finishing your degree. You have to think beyond that,” Benmamoun said. “How can you turn the knowledge you are earning into something that would make a difference in this world, not just for Muslims, for everyone?” 

Gallery • 3 Photos

Nejla Hodzic

Cookies decorated with Palestinian flags from Halah’s Sweet Treats at the fall dinner in the Wool Ballroom in the Busch Student Center, Oct. 12, 2024.

Trash bags in one hand and garbage grabbers in another, nearly 40 Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business students spent a recent Saturday cleaning up discarded items from the grass and trails of Forest Park on Sept.7, 2024. The students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, were there as part of the New Student Forest Park Forever Project, a day of service organized by Chaifetz faculty. 

This event was organized to help business students kick off the semester by getting them excited about community engagement and introducing them to the Service Leadership Program, an academic minor exclusively for business students that requires community service hours in addition to classes. 

The official slogan of Chaifetz is “Where Mission Meets the Market,” challenging students to think about how they can apply their business education to a greater calling.

Ben Smyth, the Director of Co-Curricular and Service-Learning at Chaifetz and one of the main organizers of the service event, said people on campus often question how business connects to a broader mission of service. However, Smyth values the “practicality” of business students and how they can be challenged to find their greater calling.

“What is special about a business school embedded in a liberal arts institution, is that we are professional in nature but we help form our students in a more rounded way, so that they learn how to think and how to, in our case, hopefully empathize with the world, and then they take that with them into the professional world,” Smyth said. 

The Service Leadership Program has been facing recruitment issues since COVID-19 hit. The program previously recruited about 40-60 students a year, but now, that number has dropped to 20-30 students per year. However, as Smyth’s role at Chaifetz has become more all-encompassing, so have his goals for community engagement. He is now trying to broaden the service mission beyond just the Service Leadership Program.

SLU boasts several other opportunities to get involved in service, including the Center for Social Action, the 1818 Community Engagement Grant Program and service-learning opportunities integrated into the curriculum. In 2020, The Princeton Review ranked SLU No. 2 in the nation as the university most engaged in community service. 

At the service event, students met briefly with Forest Park Forever staff in the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor and Education Center before heading out in groups to clean up the surrounding area for an hour and a half. 

Alanna-Paige Pinkney, a freshman pursuing a bachelor’s in Entrepreneurship and a minor in Service Leadership, was unsure at first about attending the service event. Afterward, she found that she got to understand more of the St. Louis community and meet new peers.

“Even with the small pieces of trash that we picked up, I think that it made a change,” Pinkney said.

During her college search, Pinkney was attracted to SLU and the Service Leadership Program because they aligned with her values of serving the community and figuring out what makes a community. In her hometown of Memphis, TN Pinkney held workshops at local community centers to teach children vocational skills and help them develop their passions. Pinkney is committed to continuing this work at SLU as a business student. 

“The future that I envision in working in business is to create community among children,” Pinkney said. “I think that it’s extremely important for children not to think always about survival or making the most money, but to find something that they’re passionate in, especially for children with broken homes…children who are really confused about where they are in life, teenagers who think they have it figured out, but don’t necessarily have the resources to get there, children who are immigrants, children with immigrant families.”

Beyond the positive results of Saturday’s event, Smyth and Pinkney both expressed the importance of thinking critically about intentions and approaches to community engagement to avoid doing more harm than good. 

As an African American student, Pinkney has observed that SLU is predominately white despite how diverse St. Louis is. She worries that people will adopt a “savior complex” when doing service without fully understanding the experiences of those in the area they are claiming to help. 

“We have to discuss topics like that, the harsher topics of like…are we doing the right thing here?” Pickney said. “Are we aware of the community that we’re in, you know, or are we…forcing our own community that we have here in Saint Louis University, on the native St. Louisans?” 

Smyth shares a similar understanding and emphasizes that students should consider the root causes of the issues they encounter. He also encourages students to think about the social change component of community engagement.

“An education, whether it’s at SLU or anywhere, but especially a place like SLU…needs to call us out,” Smyth said. “My thought is that to educate, to lead out, is a big piece of what we’re doing at SLU and what we’re doing in the business school, and we need to keep doing that.”