Fatuma Mohamed Wins Luce Scholarship

Policy School alumna Fatuma Mohamed (MA International Affairs, ’24) was named by the Henry Luce Foundation as one of sixteen 2025-2026 Luce Scholars.

The Luce Scholars Program is an experiential fellowship program that offers emerging leaders immersive professional placement in Asia tailored to their interests and aspirations. Through these experiences, the program aims to forge more robust, more informed, more compassionate relationships across geographic borders by creating opportunities for young Americans across diverse sectors and interests to deepen their ties and understanding of the countries, cultures, and people of Asia.

Fatuma’s experiences growing up in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya and resettling in the United States profoundly shaped her commitment to advocating for displaced and marginalized communities locally and globally. She strives to deepen her interdisciplinary approach to addressing global inequalities and is passionate about bridging research and advocacy.

Fatuma earned her MA in International Affairs in 2024 from Northeastern, where she also completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science and International Affairs. As an undergraduate, Fatuma worked as a research assistant on projects addressing environmental health injustices in U.S. cities, U.S.-China relations, and economic development in West Africa. As a Summer Scholars Independent Research Fellow (SSIRF), she conducted research for her honors thesis on the impact of surveillance and policing on Somali youth, examining the intersection of Islamophobia and anti-Black racism.

Beyond her academic pursuits, Fatuma is a dedicated community organizer and youth advocate. During college, she co-founded Hormar Academy, a mentorship program supporting Somali high school students in Greater Boston to overcome barriers to higher education. She currently serves as the Director of Youth Advocacy at the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), where she leads initiatives to empower Muslim youth through leadership development and civic engagement. She has also conducted state-wide research on the experiences of Muslim students in public schools and provides professional development training for educators.

Fatuma’s return to Dadaab Refugee Camp in 2022 deepened her passion for understanding and addressing the challenges faced by displaced populations. During her master’s program, she studied forced displacement, migration, and refugee experiences across regions, including those of Vietnamese, Afghan, and Syrian refugees.

Fatuma’s mission is to contribute to a just and equitable world, where all people have access to education, the freedom to move, and the opportunity to thrive.