#SoCaltech: Nora Griffith
“When I came to Caltech, I knew the campus was only going to have a small number of Muslim students. So, if I wanted to gain the benefits that I would have gotten at another school, I knew I would have to make that community for myself. My freshman year, I reached out to the then-president of the Caltech Muslim Student Association, Hamza Raniwala (BS ’20), who had already established Friday prayers on campus, and we worked together to organize a carpool to the mosque for Ramadan, set up our own room at Caltech where people who are on campus during the day can pray, and hosted a speaker event open to everyone in the Caltech community. Basic stuff. I have to say, though, it was challenging to maintain the community and find new people, and it was a challenge for me to not have the support of many other Muslim students. When it came to my senior year, I realized I wanted future students to feel more supported, so I reached out to people and did everything I could to make it feel like more of an active community. I found new freshmen this year to join, and we utilized our connection with the greater MSA West organization so we could collaborate with other groups and pool our resources to have better [virtual] events, such as guest speakers, which also helped us meet more people [online for now]. We also recently had a fundraiser to help the Uyghur Muslims in China who are being detained in ‘re-education camps.’ That was a live stream with three other MSAs and was really a great event. Just knowing that there are other Muslims on campus here and at other universities doing the same things you are and with a similar worldview is really nice.”
Nora Griffith is a Caltech senior majoring in biology. She took over as president of the Caltech Muslim Student Association this academic year (having served as secretary since her first year at Caltech). She is also co-editor of Totem, Caltech’s literary and visual arts magazine, and women’s track captain. She holds the Caltech track records for the 200-meter and 400-meter hurdles.
#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.