One of the Residence Life programs that I really loved was ‘Floorsgiving’. Not only because of the food – and I love food – but also because we did this one assignment where we filled in the sentence, ‘I am ______ but I am not always______.’ I remember sitting around thinking what should I choose.

Being Muslim is a huge part of my identity and there’s a lot of stereotypes that go into [my identity] and I feel like that’s something people always expect me to address. While I like to break those stereotypes, I also believe that there are less direct and just as effective ways of doing so. What I ended up writing was, ‘I am an advocate, but I’m not always brave.’ As a Muslim, it is my responsibility to be an advocate for others, and it’s something I want to get better at. Coming up with that one sentence meant a lot to me and hearing everyone share what they felt was their stereotype was really interesting because there were a lot of perspectives that I don’t necessarily hear all the time.”

A freshman from Plainsboro, N.J., Nain is currently a resident of Campbell Hall on the College Avenue Campus and is majoring in journalism & media studies with a joint major in political science & history. She serves on the RHA Executive Board of Campbell Hall, is a grassroots intern for NJPIRG, the Co-VP of Rutgers Read, and is involved in Scarlet Council.