Person of the Year: Alexandra Saieh

When Alexandra Saieh, A&S '09, first traveled to Palestine to further her study of Arabic, she didn't know that much about the conditions there. Though her father is from Palestine, she had more closely identified with her mother's Latin American roots and had remained relatively removed from the conflict. The sights she witnessed while there, however, stayed with her and ignited in her a deep desire to become more involved.

She brought her ideas back with her to Boston College and gradually found ways to move them out of the classroom setting. Saieh began to engage the community by sponsoring a series of lectures and events and promoted dialogue on campus about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her passion for this particular issue broadened to encompass other rights issues on campus, such as the sexual health referendum and the academic freedom movement, and she channeled her energy to promote constructive dialogue regarding social and cultural issues through her work as the associate director of the Social and Cultural Issues Department in the Undergraduate Government of BC.

Saieh's dedication to issues of political and social justice have been directed to building campus enthusiasm for the causes she believes in. At the same time, her studies and character demonstrate an interest in the pursuit of genuine understanding of the complexity of these issues. Her dedication to what she believes in and her ability to move these issues beyond books and papers into conversations with the BC community and world at large serve as an example to students and faculty alike. For this reason, The Heights is proud to name Alexandra Saieh Person of the Year.

"Its really important for students to take their futures into their own hands, and by getting involved, students can find their own niche - to find out what they care about and to build stronger beliefs."

Since childhood, Saieh has always been focused on her goals, though her passions were directed more locally than on the issues to which she currently devotes herself. From the time she was six years old and through high school, she spent her free time with her first love: dance. Her life consisted of ballet, tap, jazz, and modern dance, dance team, and studio classes, in addition to the usual demands of school, friends, and family.

At an early age, she learned how to manage her time and to continue to pursue and build upon her various interests. "There's always been something I've really focused on, but it wasn't necessarily a 'cause,'" Saieh said. While she decided to retire from dance upon beginning college, it didn't take long for her to find other outlets in which to channel her energy. She became involved in Barack Obama's presidential campaign, served as director for the BC chapter of Students for Barack Obama, and remained involved in election issues through the BC Votes campaign last fall.

Though her interest in political and social issues originally had a localized tenor, her experience in Palestine in the summer of 2007 shifted her focus to an international scale.

"I was always interested in the issue [of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] from an academic point, but I had different priorities before this point," Saieh said. "But then I just moved into more international politics and dedicated myself to raising awareness about those issues because I felt like it was what I was obliged to do."

Saieh said that while she had been aware of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza on an intellectual level, her personal experiences in the region transformed how she viewed the situation, as well as her own personal priorities. "The summer after my sophomore year, I went to Palestine to study Arabic, and just being there and witnessing the injustices that exist - I was really compelled to do something about it when I came back to BC," Saieh said. "Every year I have developed a better focus about what I want to do in life and what my focuses are."

Saieh began to organize lectures and events, beginning with a series last spring titled Palestinian Awareness week, in which she brought both Palestinians and Israelis to BC to discuss some of the social and human rights issues related to Palestinian issues. She returned to Birzeit in the West Bank the following summer and began collaborating with Eve Spangler, a professor in the sociology department, about a class Spangler would teach addressing the issues of human rights, development, and the historical and religious discourse in Israel and Palestine. Saieh suggested that the class include an experiential component in which the students could travel to the two lands.

"I was really inspired by how many service and immersion trips BC has to Latin America, and I thought it would be really good to do something like that in the Middle East," Saieh said. "It was the most rewarding experience I've ever had at BC because I was able to take my peers and show them everything I witnessed two summers ago. It was an incredible experience, and I couldn't ask for anything more."

Spangler said that Saieh was a tremendous asset both in the classroom and on the trip. "She has a sense of balance between the intellectual and the experiential. She knows the literature, is very grounded in scholarly standards, and is very capable of analyzing the material before her," Spangler said. "It was a tremendous gift to the class. It's really important to bring controversies on campus as it forces people to really think about the issues in the debate back and forth."

Some of the issues that Saieh became intimately involved in have been charged with controversy, but Saieh has not shied away from defending her beliefs. In addition to her involvement in organizing this year's Israeli Apartheid week, she has also been active in promoting the sexual health referendum and in coordinating the student response to the University's cancellation of the Bill Ayers event.