South Fayette grad receives human relations award
Courtesy of the South Fayette School District
Samihah Saleem may be small in stature, but the 5-foot-tall teenager commands any room she enters.
The recent graduate of South Fayette High School is a co-recipient of the 70th annual Caplan-Lieber Human Relations Award, which is presented by the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee and the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh.
“I’m just so honored,” Saleem said. “It’s really important for me to win one of these scholarships, especially from this organization who recognize students who care about religion, disabilities, sex, ancestry, bullying and all of these different causes. The fact that they chose these types of causes makes this award even sweeter.”
According to JCCPGH.org, the Caplan-Lieber Human Relations Award is “presented to one student in Western Pennsylvania who has shown initiative and leadership in combating prejudice and fostering good relations between diverse groups within the school environment and/or community.”
Saleem, 18, received $5,000 for winning the award, and the high school received $500.
The $500 will go to the high school’s SHOUT (Social Handprints Overcoming Unjust Treatment) organization, of which Saleem was a leader. The organization creates a safe, inclusive environment for students and staff,” Saleem said.
Saleem helped coordinate key inclusivity events in the district, such as Handprints Heal Footprints, an activity in which students place their painted handprint on the corridor windows in the school to represent their commitment to support one another and overcome harm.
She was instrumental in the annual Uncommon Conference, which invites students throughout the region to meet at South Fayette to find unity in celebrating their differences.
Saleem also co-coordinated the “Repairing the World” documentary at the high school, along with a panel discussion with victims and family members of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill. She also participated in the city of Pittsburgh’s Eradicate Hate Global Summit, which is designed to develop ideas to prevent all forms of hate-fueled violence. As part of the summit, Saleem worked with adults and peers on developing effective approaches to reduce hate-fueled violence in schools and in the community.
As part of the award process, Saleem compiled an essay on the Eradicate Hate Global Summit as a Muslim.
“As a Muslim, seeing the beauty and the unification of the entire community despite religion, sex, class, origin or identity, we all came together in support of our neighbors,” she said. “I believe that principle shouldn’t just be just in the context of religion but through our entire community. I wanted to take that principle and apply it to my entire life, more specifically in the community that I was in. It was my experience at that event and how it inspired most of my work so far.”
Saleem was nominated for the award by Dr. Chuck Herring, South Fayette’s director of student and community engagement.
“She is amazing,” Herring said. “She’s one of my favorite students. I’m sad to see her go, but I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing all of the amazing things that she’s going to be accomplishing over the course of her life.”
Saleem shared the reasons behind her passion for promoting inclusivity.
“It’s so important to me because I am part of so many different minorities,” she said. “I’m not only Muslim, I’m Indian and I am a woman. Being all of those things in America, especially with parents who weren’t born and raised here is a different experience not a lot of people talk about because it makes you feel different in a significant and profound way that you just can’t help but speak up about it.
“There’s so many people who might not be part of the same minority groups you are but share the same experience of isolation. The work that I’ve done, especially with SHOUT, create the kind of space where whether you are Muslim, Jewish, a girl, boy or even if you don’t identify with a sex or gender, you have a place at South Fayette, not only South Fayette, but you have a place in the world.”
Saleem will attend Penn State’s Schreyer’s Honors College at University Park in the fall.