Helping the Arab American and Muslim American community has become a way of life for Nina Shoman-Dajani, and she hopes new leadership training will make her even more effective at the job.
Shoman-Dajani, assistant dean of Learning Enrichment and College Readiness at Moraine Valley Community College, will be boosting her leadership skills through a Cultivate: Women of Color Leadership cohort fellowship.
The Tinley Park resident was accepted into this eight-month program that is based in Chicago but serves people throughout the region. The sessions offer personal and professional development through executive coaching and leadership workshops. It also offers the chance to network with Black, Indigenous and people of color, as well as nonbinary women who are equally passionate about social, gender and racial justice.
The group chose Shoman-Dajani, whose parents immigrated from Palestine in the 1960s, largely because of her volunteer position as executive director of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival over the past four years.
“Stereotypical images of Arabs and Palestinians in films and the media tend to be so negative, so we need to host programming and support film events and community events that uplift and show the Palestinian narrative,” she explained about the importance of the film festival, which takes place every spring but has two screenings in January. “Chicago and the surrounding area are home to the largest concentration of Palestinians in the U.S. and it’s important that we have outlets to celebrate the culture, history and traditions of the Palestinian people.”
Her contributions to the community don’t stop there.
She is a board member of the Syrian Community Network, a refugee resettlement organization, is involved with the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education, and is an advisor for the Arab Student Union and a former board member for the Arab American Studies Association at Moraine Valley.
Shoman-Dajani is also an adjunct professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Saint Xavier University and has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois in Chicago, teaching Arab-American studies.
“Nina was chosen because of her outstanding service to these (social, gender and social justice) movements and in particular because of her role as the executive director of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival,” said Nouha Boundaoui, program manager of Crossroads Fund, which helps support Cultivate. “Nina’s application demonstrated her years of service and dedication to this work and her unique perspective and leadership made her a top choice in our selection process.”
Boundaoui said, as a previous Cultivate member, the fellowship would help Shoman-Dajani in her many professional and volunteer roles.
“I can say that without a doubt learning and building community with such an incredible group of leaders was transformative for me,” said Boundaoui. “Previous members have noted in their evaluations that the experience of being in sisterhood with other like-minded leaders was deeply healing and empowering.”
Cultivate is a joint effort of Crossroads—which focuses on helping community organizations achieve racial, social and economic justice, Chicago Foundation for Women, Woods Fund Chicago, Walder foundation and the Chicago Community Trust.
One of the perks of working at MVCC for the past 15 years for Shoman-Dajani is its diversity. She helped the Arab Student Union there collaborate with the Chicago Palestine Film Festival on screenings at the college several times.
“I really believe the work I do in the community and on campus complement each other,” she said.
Administrators at MVCC are excited about her acceptance into Cultivate, too.
“She is also recognized at regional, state and national levels as a leading voice in the research and implementation of successful practices to support Arab-American students in higher education,” said Ryen Nagle, vice president of academic affairs at MVCC. “I am confident she will use her personal and professional development experiences in the Cultivate program to benefit Moraine Valley’s Adult Education program and to broadly impact the postsecondary educational outcomes of Arab-American students.”
But Shoman-Dajani said none of her work, including the fellowship, is temporary.
“There’s always going to be work to do in the community so this isn’t something that has an end date, it’s continuous work,” she said. “Programs like Cultivate provide us the opportunity to re-center our energy to sustain this work.
“This can be very labor intensive and emotionally draining work but it’s work that I’m passionate about.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
