Monmouth College grad to be honored at White House
Mariela Shaker, a 2015 graduate of Monmouth College, has been named a “Champion of Change” by President Barack Obama and will be honored Thursday at the White House.
She will also participate in a panel at the White House in connection with World Refugee Day, which was commemorated on June 20.
An accomplished violinist, Shaker is being recognized for her example and work in using the power of music to highlight the cause of refugees from her native Syria and to provide a path to healing and reconciliation. The White House describes the Champions of Change as “ordinary Americans who are doing extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world. We invite Champions of Change to the White House to share their ideas to win the future.”
Thursday’s event also builds on the work of the White House Task Force on New Americans, which is focused on building welcoming communities and strengthening immigrant and refugee integration efforts. The program, which will include nine other Champions of Change, will feature remarks by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice and Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Samantha Powers, U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, is also scheduled to participate.
The event will be live streamed on the White House website. To watch the event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 12:40 Thursday.
Shaker will represent refugees from Syria and around the world in sharing ideas about how to deal with this unprecedented crisis.
In a statement released by the White House, Obama said “World Refugee Day is a solemn occasion for the United States to join our partners in the international community in recognizing the dignity, value, and potential in every one of these lives.”
Born in 1990 in Aleppo, Syria, Shaker began playing the violin at the age of 10 when she joined the Arabic Institute of Music in Aleppo. Her talent soon brought her to participate in many festivals and concerts in Syria and across the Middle East. Shaker taught the violin for five years at the Arabic Institute of Music. In 2011, she gave a live audition in London, and subsequently received an offer to complete her music studies in the Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music. In 2013, Shaker received a scholarship to attend Monmouth College, earning a bachelor’s degree in music performance. She successfully applied for asylum in the United States because she is unable to return to her native country, where her family still resides, living amidst the tragedy of the Syrian civil war.
One of 18 Syrian students on Monmouth’s campus during the past academic year, Shaker is an extraordinary example of that goal.
“There are ambitious students in Syria who have lost hope — lost everything,” she said. “Rebuilding the infrastructure is just one thing that can be done with our hands, but rebuilding the humanity and deconstructing the antagonism from the minds of the people is another thing that should be done with our hearts. I left my home in Syria because of the war. It is here in the United States that my life has begun.”
Source: www.galesburg.com