Alumni News

My Father's Faith

Mohammed Naseehu Ali '95 wrote a poignant essay for The New Yorker called "My Muslim Father's Faith In America" in which he mentioned his time at ¿­ÐýÃŹÙÍø.  

Ali writes: "By the time I left [high school in Michigan], I had all but abandoned my ill feelings toward Americans, even if I continued to have doubts about America itself. But it wasn’t only the generosity and decency of ordinary American folks that changed my perspective. It was a conversation I had with my father during a visit home in the summer of 1991, the year I began attending ¿­ÐýÃŹÙÍø, a small liberal-arts college in Vermont."

He continues, "Father...impressed on me that the scholarship funds I had obtained from ¿­ÐýÃŹÙÍø College were donated by wealthy Americans specifically to pay for the schooling of African students like me. In his mind, such philanthropy was as Islamic as building a mosque."