Thursday, December 7th, 2017
NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – A Bethel College graduate is among the 30 people featured in the cover story of the December 2017 issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
“The Influencers: People Quietly Changing the Nonprofit World” (published online Dec. 5) highlights 15 people – and more briefly lists 15 more – the magazine calls “charity movers and shakers who are doing exciting things … moving under the radar but making a big impact on society’s toughest issues.”
One of these “movers and shakers” is Aziza Hasan, born in Jordan to a Palestinian father and American mother, who later moved to Halstead, graduated from Halstead High School and Bethel College. She is now based in Los Angeles as the executive director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, which she co-founded in 2006.
Following graduation from Bethel in 2003 with a degree in history and social science and a certificate in conflict resolution, Hasan spent two years as an AmeriCorps volunteer with Interfaith Ministries of Wichita, and completed an M.A. degree at Wichita State University.
In 2016, Hasan received Bethel’s Young Alumnus Award, which “recognizes character and citizenship, achievement or service rendered, and honors and recognition received.”
When The Chronicle put out a call, earlier this year, for names of people who fit its criteria of quiet impact in the nonprofit world, the magazine “wasn’t prepared for how many we would find. The individuals profiled were drawn from a pool of more than 300 nominations.
“These people are forward-thinking, and their stories speak of innovation, personal courage and grit. Collectively, they offer a glimpse of the future of philanthropy.”
Among those profiled are people working through their nonprofit organizations to break down the color and gender barriers in outdoor sports, help first-generation college students complete their degrees, de-stigmatize and effectively treat mental illness, provide safe space for homeless students, fight the opioid epidemic, improve financial access for marginalized groups such as poor women and native people, and, in Hasan’s case, build bridges across deep religious divides.
You can read the profile of Hasan at www.philanthropy.com/article/Building-Bridges-Across-Faiths/241857 and access all the profiles at www.philanthropy.com/specialreport/the-influencers-people-quietl/159.
Bethel College ranks at No. 1 in College Consensus’ ranking of Kansas colleges and universities, and is the only Kansas private college listed in the Forbes.com analysis of top colleges and universities, the Washington Monthly National Universities-Liberal Arts section and the National Liberal Arts College category of U.S. News & World Report, all for 2017-18. The four-year liberal arts college is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu.
Bethel College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, gender, sexual orientation, parental or marital status, gender identity, gender expression, medical or genetic information, ethnic or national origins, citizenship status, veteran or military status or disability. E-mail questions to TitleIXCoordinator@bethelks.edu.
