CUBE Alum Honored for Community Service

November 20, 2018 • • No Comments

UNC-Chapel Hill student Anum Imran has been recognized for outstanding leadership and service by North Carolina Campus Compact, a statewide network of colleges and universities with a shared commitment to civic engagement. Imran is a recipient of the network’s Community Impact Award, which honors one student leader at each school.

Imran is one of 18 students selected by their campus for the 2018 honor, joining more than 250 college students recognized by the network since the award was first presented in 2006.

Through the support of the CUBE social innovation incubator at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Campus Y, Imran developed Traditional Kitchens. This cooperative cookery provides local refugee women a pathway to economic and entrepreneurial development through catering, pop-up, and subscription-based sales of traditional cuisine. The project brings together threads from other parts of her service work with the Muslim Student Association, Islamic Relief USA, and Refugee Community Partnership. A sophomore, Imran is also enrolled in the Buckley Public Service Scholars program.

Imran (third from the right) and the Traditional Kitchens team sold out their first campus pop-up lunch in thirty minutes.

According to her nominator, “Everyone who hears Imran speak about [Traditional Kitchens] walks away inspired and ready to engage.”

Imran is double-majoring in political science and statistics and analytics.

Imran was honored at the Compact’s annual CSNAP student conference, held this year on November 10 at Fayetteville State University. The event convened more than 150 students and staff from 23 campuses in the network. In addition to awards and networking opportunities, the conference included student-led workshops, panel discussions, and plenary sessions on diverse community engagement topics around the theme: “The Power of Youth Civic Courage.”

North Carolina Campus Compact is a collaborative network of 37 colleges and universities committed to educating students for civic and social responsibility, partnering with communities for positive change, and strengthening democracy. The NC Campus Compact state office fosters connections between campuses, shares best practice information and resources, recognizes outstanding work, and champions civic and community engagement in higher education. Founded in 2002 and hosted by Elon University, the North Carolina network is an affiliate of national Campus Compact, which claims 1,000 member schools representing nearly 2 million college students.