Habso Mohamud ’17 ’18 is graduating with her master’s degree May 4, but she is already putting her skills to work as the first Decade Of Women Fellow for the United Nations Office of Partnership.
Learn more
Mohamud started her fellowship this April and will be traveling the world to speak at events as a Voice for Decade Of Women. She will also work with refugees and work to empower young girls and youths across the world.
She will also attend United Nations events to speak as Decade Of Women champion and collaborate with United Nations agencies. This May she is also starting full-time work with 5th Element.
“I want to give hope to every child, every girl and every women around the world who never thought success would be a possibility,” Mohamud said. “United Nations gave me those hopes and dreams as a kid living in a refugee camp and granted me a better life and education.”
The Decade Of Women is a movement that builds on the work the United Nations started with its 1976 Decade For Women, which was dedicated to rallying people for gender equity. The Decade Of Women is designed to complete what the Decade For Women began and finally achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal of gender equity throughout the world.
Habso Mohamud ’17 ’18 is the first U.N. Decade Of Women Fellow.
“It is my job now to do the same for those who lost hope, to empower and inspire them, to show them that they’re people out there in this world who want to change their lives around, who would make their dreams come true,” she said.
Mohamud will put to use the skills she learned in the classroom as a fellow and in her career. She graduated in 2017 with an undergraduate degree in travel and tourism and is graduating this spring with a self-designed special studies master’s degree in global education and gender development.
“St. Cloud State University gave me the opportunity to unleash my horizons, invested in my leadership and education,” she said. “I was able to create my own master’s program because this university made the impossible a possibility for me.”
She credits the resilience she developed while a student for completing her academic journey.
“My resilience has also enabled me to realize that I did not only go through the formal rigors of education, but rather I allowed education to go through me,” she said.
Mohamud’s family is originally from Somalia, but spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp after Civil War broke out at home. After 10 years the family came to the United States as refugees where Mohamud grew up in St. Cloud and attended elementary and high school before coming to St. Cloud State for college.
She plans to use her experiences as a refugee to help others.
“It’s what I have a passion for — to change the lives of refugee women and children across the world who do not have the opportunity to be in the western world,” she said. “I want to be their voice and give them the same opportunity that was granted me.”
The resilience she developed to succeed at St. Cloud State has helped her grow and motivated her to move forward.
“I have survived many obstacles in my lifetime including financial instability,” Mohamud said. “I have learned more about myself through every experience life throws at me. I have fought my fears, my insecurities, and came forth to persevere in almost every situation.”
