Luke Loranger |
When Khalid Osman and Grace Holmes take office as ASUP president and vice president next year, they'll lead the most diverse ASUP executive board ever. Osman, who was born in Kenya, and Holmes, who has experienced homelessness, hope to bring their experiences and perspectives to the issues they fight for.
A family story
ASUP President-elect Khalid Osman wouldn’t be at the University of Portland without a Gates Millennium Scholarship.
Khalid competed with more than 26,000 applicants to win one of 1,000 Millennium Scholarships, which pays for ten years of higher education and emphasizes the importance of service and leadership. To compete for the scholarship, Khalid had to write eight essays and be nominated by a teacher.
“You can’t put into words what this opportunity is like, being here,” Osman said. “My family history pushes me to the best that I can be.”
Osman, a 5th-year civil engineering major who transferred from Portland State freshman year, comes from a family of 11 siblings and moved to the U.S. from Kenya when he was young.
“I think I was born into a leadership role. I always had to carry myself with respect, and be a role model for those who were younger than me,” Osman said. “If I ever thought about doing something that wasn’t smart, I thought about my siblings.”
Being a Gates Scholar changes how Khalid interacts with the students he helps with college applications at Roosevelt High School.
“Many kids don’t feel they will fit into college, or be able to afford it,” Osman said. “[I tell them] don’t worry about the money, worry about everything else by working hard on the scholarship essays.”
Family will always be the most important aspect of Osman’s life. The majority of the money he earns at his internship with Hoffman Construction Company is sent home to his family or extended family overseas.
“If anything pushes me to be the best that I can be, it is my family,” said Osman. “Even in high school I was working to fill up our car.”
For Osman, a Muslim, one of the most important aspects of UP is how welcoming the community is.
“To many people, the first word that comes to their mind when they think of Muslim is ‘terrorist,” Osman said. “I try to be the best person I can be, and try and not hide the fact that I am Muslim. I never felt discriminated against at the University, and I think the administration does a great job by having a prayer room that is open 24 hours a day.”
'Okay to be different'
Like Osman, ASUP Vice President-elect Grace Holmes has taken an unusual journey to The Bluff.
After moving from Nebraska to Colorado during high school, Holmes and her mom found themselves homeless due to circumstances out of their control. Holmes was homeless throughout her senior of high school.
But Holmes and her mother pushed through that time due to her mother’s education and success, and Holmes moved to Portland for college.
“I would not be at college if I had not come from such a privileged background,” Holmes said. “I was lucky enough to face adversity late in life to still know that college is an option for me.”
Holmes also said her mother’s background in law inspired her to get involved with justice issue.
“I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to work on divorce law with my mom in Nebraska [after living in Colorado],” Holmes said. “These experiences introduced me to a new world of youth justice issues, which I am passionate about.”
Holmes views her mother as one of the most important and inspirational figures in her life.
“My mom is amazing because she went from a stay-at-home mother to one of the leading experts on juvenile justice in Omaha,” said Holmes. “She took something that could have defeated her and turned it into a reason to get up every day.”
Holmes identifies as lesbian, and though she was anxious about attending a Catholic school, she came out the end of her freshman year at college.
“I feel that it is important that I am out as the vice president of ASUP. I think kids who visit UP should know that even if it is a Catholic school, it is okay to be different,” she said. “It is important for me to open, even if it does not always adhere to Catholic values.”
Holmes lived in Omaha, Nebraska until she was 16, an experience she found difficult.
“I am open about my sexuality, which was hard in Nebraska,” Holmes said. “Nebraska is a very homophobic place, but coming to Portland I could come out and be myself.”
For Holmes, being ASUP vice president comes from a desire to emulate her mom and create positive change.
“I want to be like her and take my experiences and turn them into a positive for other people, so that these conversations occur,” Holmes said. “There are some things that are hard to talk about, but I want people to know where I’m coming from and I’m trying to [turn] my experiences into a positive for other people.”
Presidency goals
During their campaign, Osman and Holmes said they will focus on three main issues: lowering tuition, creating a student center and making ASUP Senate more transparent.
Holmes wants to address tuition immediately by working with other Portland schools such as Lewis and Clark, Reed and Portland State this summer in a discussion about how to face the rising cost.
Plans for a new student center are also central to Osman and Holmes’ administration.
“St Mary’s and The Library are not working [in their current state]. We have seen at other colleges that student centers were built by the students,” Osman said. “This student center can also reinforce diversity because we can have [outlets] for multicultural clubs that will not work in St. Mary’s because it has little room for growth.”
Osman and Holmes want to make senate more interesting and appealing to everyone. They discussed the possibility of having a free dinner in The Commons one day or abolishing Senators’ office hours in favor of other methods of communication.
Osman and Holmes are also willing to incorporate other ideas into their post-election plans, including the importance of support for mental illness.
“We do care about mental health, and I have talked about this with the administration. This is an open discussion, and we want to help those already addressing this through ASUP,” Osman said.
Osman wants to make his door open to anyone who wants to speak about to him. He can be reached at osman16@up.edu or at https://khalidgrace.firebaseapp.com/#/ where anyone can post their concerns or comments. Luke Loranger is a reporter for the Beacon and can be reached at loranger18@up.edu or on Twitter @loranger18.
