{"id":18461,"date":"2023-01-18T13:21:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T19:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/?p=18461"},"modified":"2023-01-18T15:26:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T21:26:56","slug":"alum-makes-history-on-twin-cities-suburbs-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/2023\/01\/18\/alum-makes-history-on-twin-cities-suburbs-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum makes history on Twin Cities suburb\u2019s council"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_18462\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18462\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18462\" src=\"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/CREDIT-City-of-Blaine-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/CREDIT-City-of-Blaine-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/CREDIT-City-of-Blaine-1.jpg 698w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-18462\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lori Saroya &#8217;13 was sworn in as a member of the Blaine, Minn., city council on Jan. 4, 2023. Photo courtesy City of Blaine<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lori Saroya \u201913 made history this month when she was sworn in as the first woman of color and the first Muslim person to serve on the city council in her hometown.<\/p>\n<p>Saroya, 41, won a special election in November to represent for the next two years the First Ward in Blaine, Minn., a community of about 71,000 people. She had previously served on the city\u2019s Charter Commission and told the Minneapolis Star Tribune she wasn\u2019t totally sure about running for the council last year. &#8220;Wearing a scarf, being a woman of color, I wondered if being elected was realistic,&#8221; she said, adding there were Islamophobic messages and attacks throughout the campaign. &#8220;Those comments motivated me,\u201d she told the newspaper. \u201cLet me prove them wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During her career in nonprofit work, Saroya has served on the board of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, as well as Mitchell Hamline\u2019s alumni board. She was the first person in her family to attend law school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would not have succeeded at Mitchell Hamline without my colleagues and professors, who genuinely care and want to see you succeed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt&#8217;s amazing to have people who believe in you and continue to support you a decade after you leave their classroom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s what makes Mitchell Hamline so special and unique.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/first-woman-of-color-and-first-muslim-begins-blaine-city-council-term\/600240831\/?refresh=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First woman of color and first Muslim begins Blaine City Council term<\/a> (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lori Saroya \u201913 made history this month when she was sworn in as the first woman of color and the first Muslim person to serve on the city council in her hometown. Saroya, 41, won a special election in November to represent for the next two years the First Ward in Blaine, Minn., a community &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/2023\/01\/18\/alum-makes-history-on-twin-cities-suburbs-council\/\" class=\"more-link\">Alum makes history on Twin Cities suburb\u2019s council<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1084,"featured_media":18464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161,3,4,162,165,175,163,1],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-18461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alumni","8":"category-alumni-spotlight","9":"category-class-note","10":"category-feature","11":"category-features","12":"category-homepage","13":"category-news","14":"category-news-and-events","15":"tag-alumni","16":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}