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2 days ago
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Meet our 2025 Grads to Watch from southern Maine
Jun. 8—This month, thousands of young people are making one of life's great transitions at high school graduations across Maine. Each year, we highlight 10 seniors who have shown they have what it takes to make a difference in the world. This year's standouts include top scholars and athletes, several musicians, artists and social activists, a few immigrants, a plumber in training, a technology whiz, a filmmaker and a future physician. They have overcome language and cultural barriers, family crises, everyday teen insecurities and the challenges of living in a polarized, post-pandemic world. Their intended careers include law, politics, business, advocacy, counseling, government, advertising and public health. They have accomplished so much already, and we're excited to see what happens next. — Tristan Choi — Waynflete School — Matthew Fagerlund — Scarborough High School — Maya Faulstich — Yarmouth High School — Asher Knott — Baxter Academy — Nasir Manahe — Gorham High School — Michelle Matos Galva — Deering High School — Amara Roberts — Kennebunk High School — Eden Saylor — Greely High School/Portland Arts and Technology High School — Roberto Tshimayi Ngaba — Thornton Academy/Biddeford Regional Center of Technology — Kaia West — Portland High School ------ TRISTAN CHOI Waynflete School The summer after his freshman year at Waynflete School, Tristan Choi spent two weeks on a service-learning trip to a rural village in Nepal. In the foothills of the Himalayas, they built a chicken coop, planted trees, filled potholes and trekked with Sherpa guides. They repaired the roof of a school dormitory, where they also slept and shared meals with local students. It was a challenging experience that pushed Choi and the other American students out of their comfort zones so they could harness empathy and focus on the needs of others. "It was intentionally uncomfortable," he said. "Discomfort helps you learn." The experience led Choi to immerse himself in learning more about who he is, how he can connect with others and what he can do to help solve some of the world's most pressing problems, including homelessness, human trafficking and access to education. Choi's family moved from Arlington, Massachusetts, to Portland shortly before he enrolled as a freshman at Waynflete, where he has been a top student and athlete, playing soccer and captaining the crew team. Growing up, he spent some holidays with his father's family in New York, where they enjoyed traditional Korean dishes including rice, crab and glistening sweet potato noodles called japchae. Other holidays were spent with his mother's family in Freedom, near Waterville, where plates were filled with turkey and all the fixings. Choi came to see himself as a bridge between two ethnic communities that make him whole, he said. "Moving to Maine was like diving into a part of my heritage," said Choi, 17. "Maine is a part of who I am, and I've grown to love it even more." As a sophomore, he attended a national student diversity leadership conference in San Antonio, Texas, where he found himself in a meeting room with about 400 private school students who identified as Asian or Pacific Islander. "I had never felt that before, seeing so many people like me," he recalled. "I was struck and empowered by the experience." The following year Choi started the Asian Students Association at Waynflete, which now has about 20 members. He hopes it will continue with help from his sister, Acadia, who will be a sophomore in the fall. He also co-founded Waynflete's Community Engagement Program, which helps students establish long-term volunteer relationships with nonprofits. He met with Portland officials to address homelessness, was an intern with the League of Women Voters of Maine and worked at Bay Club Fitness. He plans to study business and philanthropy at Swarthmore College, with a long-term goal of developing more ethical, community-based models of capitalism and leadership that emphasize collaboration. "I envision myself as a problem-solver who sees the whole picture," Choi said. "Someone who sees not only how things have been done, but also how they could be done more efficiently in the future." ------ MATTHEW FAGERLUND Scarborough High School Matthew Fagerlund's fascination with technology took hold during the pandemic, when he was attending middle school classes online. While others struggled to unmute themselves in Zoom meetings, Fagerlund was dissecting every computer at his family's home in Scarborough. He took apart and reassembled two old Dell laptops, then attempted to install a newer operating system in one of them. "With the lockdown, I had an abundance of time, and I wanted to learn more about computer hardware," he said. "According to Microsoft, Windows Vista wasn't supposed to work on a laptop with Windows XP, but I wanted to make it work. I think I got pretty close." That itch to understand the inner workings of computers propelled Fagerlund to become a driving force in technology innovation at Scarborough High School, including a recent foray into artificial intelligence. In addition to being a leader of the school's robotics team, he is a founding member of a technology help desk that was established so students could better understand and use their devices. He also built a complete computer algebra system in BASIC programming language as a study tool for Texas Instruments calculators. "It could solve all of the mathematical questions you would encounter all the way through your senior year," said Fagerlund, 18. "It took me a year and a half in my spare time." He also developed an optical character recognition program that converts a teacher's handwriting on a digital whiteboard into clearly formatted, easy-to-read text. More recently, Fagerlund worked with a team of students and technology staff to build a secure, in-house artificial intelligence system similar to ChatGPT, the website that generates human-like responses to a wide range of questions or prompts. The team presented its AI system last month at the annual spring conference of the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine. The system doesn't have a name yet, and the district is still working on how it will be accessed, he said, but teachers have already used it to produce more engaging lesson plans and testing materials. "It's one of the most exciting things I've ever done," he said. "AI isn't about replacing humans. It's about helping them work better and more efficiently." Fagerlund volunteered regularly as an adviser to robotics teams at other schools and as a referee at robotics competitions across Maine and New Hampshire. This summer he'll work with software engineers at Tyler Technologies, and he'll head to the University of Maine this fall to study computer engineering. "I want to work on integrating different technologies together so they work more efficiently for people," he said. "I like when I can see what I do every day is more than just a hobby project." ------ MAYA FAULSTICH Yarmouth High School Maya Faulstich traces her interest in the environment to many family adventures spent kayaking, camping and cross-country skiing. Her most precious memory of her late oma — her grandmother who grew up in the Netherlands — is picking daffodils in her garden when Faulstich was a little girl. "The most important moments of my childhood were spent outside," she said. "My whole life, I have been surrounded by people who see nature as being really important to our well being." Those early experiences led Faulstich to create Dishes on Demand, an award-winning dish-lending program at Yarmouth High School that provides reusable plates, bowls, cups and utensils for sports team dinners and other community events. She started the program as a way to stem the growing amount of plastic trash she saw everywhere, including at Yarmouth High dinners that she attended as a member of the cross-country running and skiing teams. She read about a returnable takeout food container program in North Carolina and thought she could do something similar. She pitched the dish-lending idea to her parents, who helped with the initial purchase of reusable plastic dinnerware and stainless silverware. She launched the program in September 2022 and the following spring won $1,000 as a finalist in National Geographic Society's Slingshot Challenge, which recognizes solutions to environmental problems. She invested the money back into the program. Since its inception, Dishes on Demand has kept more than 16,500 pieces of disposable tableware out of the waste stream, according to the program's website. Ecomaine, the Portland-based regional waste incinerator and recycler, gave her a 2025 Eco-Excellence Award for outstanding student leadership in sustainability and environmental education. She also received the 2025 Student of the Year Award from the Maine Environmental Education Association, which called her "a beacon of sustainability in her community." "I think people want solutions, and people are happy that someone is doing something about it," Faulstich said. Now 17, she has promoted various waste-reduction efforts as a leader of the high school's Environmental Action Club and a member of the town's Climate Action Board and the state's Materials Management Task Force. She has spoken widely on various environmental issues, including testifying before the Legislature as a member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice. In addition to being a top student and athlete, she is an accomplished artist, singer, songwriter and musician who has been selected regularly to participate in annual district and state choirs and has recorded her own songs and videos. She plans to study environmental science and policy at Smith College. "I want to have a say in what happens in our world in the future," she said. "I want to use a background in science to inform policy decisions and the people they impact." ------ ASHER KNOTT Baxter Academy Asher Knott's film, "Back to Class," opens with a slightly surreal, "Mission: Impossible" style scene. Knott, alone in his home, gets a mysterious call requesting that he make a documentary, with one caveat. Then, his smiling döppelganger hangs up the phone. A multidiscipline artist who also takes photos and creates digital art, Knott is a senior at Baxter Academy, the Portland STEM-focused charter school. Knott, who lives in Windham, was drawn to Baxter because of Flex Fridays, a program that gives students every Friday to work on a year-long, self-directed project. His past projects included a narrative spy movie, a product photography series and a film about another student's engineering project. For his senior year, he decided to highlight the projects of a dozen other students with "Back to Class," a half-hour documentary that combines artistic shots, talking-head interviews, smooth transitions, music and a little bit of whimsy. "People can tell you about their projects, but this is what actually happened in the moment," he said of the film. Knott's passion for filmmaking started in middle school. During the pandemic, teachers allowed greater flexibility for projects, and he started using a GoPro and iMovie to do assignments in video form. He saved up to buy his own gear and started practicing filmmaking, photography and editing on his own. At Baxter, Knott got involved in student publications and did formatting and layout for the student literary magazine The Baxterian and the student newspaper The Baxter Buzz. He also worked on the 2025 yearbook and designed its cover. Knott said when it comes to filmmaking, he's always been good at putting all the pieces together in service of an end product, and applied those same skills to the magazine, paper and yearbook. "You imbue it with creative vision, what makes it look good in the end," Knott said. "I can take it, I add my flair to it, add a bit of interest, make it flow together." A true multi-disciplinarian, Knott is passionate about music and also competed in doubles tennis all four years of high school at his local Windham High School. Knott thinks of filmmaking as a hobby but can see graphic design as a career, which is why he's going to Keene State College in New Hampshire next fall to study it. He's considering working in advertising, where he wants to put his own stylistic spin on ads, or perhaps continue to work on design for publications. ------ NASIR MANAHE Gorham High School Nasir Manahe grew up working at Sindibad Market in Portland alongside his father and three uncles, conversing with customers in Arabic and building relationships with the community. "That place is really important to me," Manahe, 18, said. "Because that's where everything started." Manahe and his parents were living in Baghdad, Iraq, when his uncle immigrated to Maine and opened the Middle Eastern market. They followed in his footsteps and moved here in 2010, when Manahe was 3. Initially, they lived in Portland before moving out to Gorham in the middle of Manahe's freshman year. At Gorham High School, he said, it was difficult to make friends because the students already knew each other. But soon he met people through wrestling, where the family atmosphere and structure quickly drew him in. "It taught me about friendships, it taught me about discipline, it taught me how to keep my head straight, it taught me how to take care of my body," he said. It wasn't long until Manahe was enmeshed in the school culture, and when Gorham High needed someone energetic and not easily embarrassed to wear the ram mascot costume at a cheer competition, all eyes turned to him. He went on to be the mascot at more school events, and also helped coach youth wrestling and played football his senior year. Manahe is also deeply involved in the local Muslim community. He helped to start the Al-Rahman Mosque in Portland, where he now volunteers doing handiwork and teaching Arabic to kids. He was one of the founders of the Muslim Students Association at Gorham High, a small group that gets together to bond over their faith and help the Gorham school community understand Ramadan. "I don't think I'd be here without my faith. I think I'd be in a very different place," he said. "When I'm stressed, I go and pray, and I feel like everything is OK again." One thing Manahe said he prayed on was his academic future, after getting advice from his mom: just think about now, and let God handle your future. Manahe will attend the University of Maine next fall, where he plans to study psychology and pursue a career as a therapist. "I know how to talk to people, and people like talking to me," he said. ------ MICHELLE MATOS GALVA Deering High School While attending a predominantly white high school in Miami, Michelle Matos Galva joined the Dreamer Girls Project, a group of Black teenage girls who review sexual health policies created by the Yale School of Public Health. She was searching for a community, and found it, along with an academic passion. Matos Galva, who recently graduated from Deering High School, has been interested in medicine as long as she can remember; she played with toy doctor sets as a kid and always excelled in science classes. But it was Dreamer Girls that introduced her to public health, and the idea that access to medicine in the United States is disparate across racial groups. "As a woman of color, I see in my everyday life a difference in how Black women are treated in the United States and how that translates to health," she said. When it comes to areas like sexual health and menstruation, already taboo subjects, Matos Galva, 18, said disparities for groups like young Black women can be especially high. That's why she wants to be a doctor. "If we're not the ones making (interventions), how are they going to be effective?" she said. Through Dreamer Girls, Matos Galva meets with other Black girls to provide feedback on a Yale professor's STI and drug use intervention programs, and presented at an HIV conference about prevention among Black girls. Matos Galva was born in the Dominican Republic, grew up in Miami and moved to Maine, where her father is from, for her junior year. She found Deering to be a diverse and welcoming school and quickly got involved with groups like the Black Student Union, of which she's now a Cabinet Representative. Matos Galva had the opportunity to work in a research lab for the first time last summer, where she dissected cricket embryos to understand how they recover from injury. The six-week internship at Bowdoin's Horch Lab was part of a Maine program for high school juniors interested in STEM research, and the experience set her on a path toward neuroscience, which she plans to study along with public health at Brown University this fall. Along the way, Matos Galva has found ways to explore her passion for public health in Portland, through working at the Frances Warde House, a transitional home for pregnant immigrant women facing homelessness. There, she teaches English, helps collect data on the residents' health care experiences, and said she has connected with the women — most of them Angolan and Congolese immigrants — over the similarities and differences in their cultures, like family, food and language. "I just like the community aspect of it," she said. "Interacting with the women in the house, it's taught me a lot." ------ AMARA ROBERTS Kennebunk High School Amara Roberts has found inspiration close to home and far afield that has fueled her personal growth and her understanding of the world. Born in Ethiopia, Roberts was adopted into a vibrant single-parent family in Kennebunk when she was a year old. Her mother, Lisa Roberts, had three children with her late husband and adopted 11 more from the U.S. and other countries. Eight are still living at home, ages 3 to 25. "It can get very hectic," Roberts, 17, admits. "We've never had a small car — it was a huge van when I was little, and now it's a Suburban — and there's a lot of chairs around the dining table." Growing up in such a large, diverse family, Roberts learned how to be patient and open-minded, she said, and how to compromise and cope with the challenges of everyday life. "We're all different, but we share the same love for each other," she said of her siblings. "There's a built-in support system for all of us. There's always someone I can go to if I need something." An honors student at Kennebunk High School, she took several advanced courses through the International Baccalaureate program and the University of Maine. That experience gave her a broader understanding of what's happening outside her mostly white community, she said. "I came to see the world a lot differently," she said. "It made me a better writer and a critical thinker." No longer feeling like a bystander, Roberts became a leader and social media coordinator of the Model UN club, where she not only practiced the skills of discussion, debate and diplomacy, she also learned to speak up for herself and others as a passionate social justice advocate. Her interest in global affairs grew through an internship with the Association of Former Intelligence Officers of Maine, a Kennebunk-based group that hosts speakers and other public events related to U.S. foreign policy. Roberts interviewed guests in advance for social media posts — most recently Ronald Neumann, former ambassador to Afghanistan — and helped run meetings, holding the microphone for audience questions. "It was so cool to interview (Neumann)," she said. "I learned a lot and it was great to see older people coming together to learn. That whole experience really solidified my interest in political science." Roberts also worked throughout high school, starting at age 14 at Dairy Queen, and now as a sales associate at Dock Square Clothiers and a hostess at the White Barn Inn, racking up about 30 hours a week. She plans to study political science and pre-law at Fordham University and credits her mother with helping her get this far. "She really goes above and beyond for me every day," Roberts said. "She was always meant to be a mother." ------ EDEN SAYLOR Greely High School — Portland Arts and Technology High School Eden Saylor sees carpentry as both a practical and creative pursuit. Which makes sense, because the Cumberland graduate, who attended Greely High School and Portland Arts and Technology High School, is heading to trade school in the fall with the ultimate goal of becoming an artist and working on furniture design and sculpture. Saylor, 18, joined the drama club at Greely because she was interested in arts and found her place on the tech crew. She fell in love with set building while working on a production of "Little Shop of Horrors." "You'll just build an entire world, a whole different country or a whole house, and it's just fake," she said. "I like the illusion behind it." After doing a short apprenticeship in lumber work, a guidance counselor suggested Saylor check out PATHS, the Portland-based technical school. She joined its carpentry program during her junior year and calls that the best decision of her high school career. "It opens a lot of doors that regular school wouldn't," Saylor said. "PATHS is my favorite part of the day." There, Saylor has worked with other students to build sheds and an entire modular home and practiced cabinetmaking for a statewide competition. In her free time, she likes to build furniture in the PATHS woodshop or challenge herself with projects that require new techniques, like putting hinges on a door. Saylor credits her carpentry teacher, Frank Kehoe, with fostering her passions and teaching her skills. As the only girl in her carpentry program, Saylor said it has been difficult, sometimes, to handle the "bro culture" and occasional bullying. But she learned not to let that distract her, and her teachers say she has navigated those situations with directness and maturity. "You have to let things go," she said. "Which is not to say that you should let them get away with things." Saylor said her parents, who are both physicians, have been supportive of her trades-based career path. Her dad is a casual craftsman, and her grandfather was a cabinet maker. She even inherited some of his tools, although she never got to know him. Saylor will attend Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor next year, with plans to spend a year learning how to weld and benefiting from Maine's free community college tuition program. Then, she has her eyes set on art school in Boston, where she wants to blend her technical skills and artistic eye by studying furniture design and eventually working on large-scale sculptural installations. ------ ROBERTO TSHIMAYI NGABA Thornton Academy — Biddeford Regional Center of Technology Roberto Tshimayi Ngaba went to school grudgingly when he lived in Angola and Brazil. "I didn't want to go to school," he said. "Here, I want to go to school because if you know what you want and you work hard, you can be successful." Ngaba, 18, has found success at Thornton Academy in Saco, where he is graduating, and at Biddeford Regional Center of Technology, where he has one year left to complete the plumbing and heating program. He already has two offers for an apprenticeship set to start this summer. The oldest of five children, Ngaba and his family fled violence and persecution in Angola when he was 10. They spent several years in Brazil before making the harrowing journey north to the southern U.S. border, often on foot, sometimes going days without food or clean water. His parents decided to come to Maine because they heard from other migrants that it was quiet and safe, Ngaba said. They arrived in 2022, first staying at a hotel in Freeport, then at a hotel in Saco, where they now rent an apartment. His father, who was an obstetrician in Angola, works for a cleaning company, he said, and his mother works at an elder care facility. "We are really happy where we are," he said. "But it was really hard in the beginning. We had to ask everybody for everything. It made us feel very fragile." Attending school also was difficult at first, especially because Ngaba could speak Lingala, Portuguese and some French but no English. "I couldn't even say hi," he said, so he scrambled to catch up. Soon after he he started at Thornton, a family friend suggested that he take advantage of career training offered to area high school students at the technology center in Biddeford. Ngaba spent his junior year training to be a certified nursing assistant, then switched to plumbing and heating his senior year after learning it was a more lucrative field. His plumbing instructor, Frederick Jokinen, helped him overcome language and cultural barriers. Ngaba learned quickly, gaining a reputation as a go-getter and earning a spot in the National Technical Honor Society. He has worked part time at Walmart for a year — a job he plans to give up when he begins an apprenticeship that will pay more than $20 an hour. He will resume training at the technology center this fall to complete the two-year plumbing program. He plans to continue his studies at Southern Maine Community College and eventually operate his own plumbing business. Ngaba said he enjoys designing and building plumbing systems piece by piece. "And you can make really good money," he said. ------ KAIA WEST Portland High School Kaia West has been in and around water as long as she can remember. But she wants those who haven't to feel just as safe near Portland's pools, rivers and coastline. "Learning to swim is a privilege, but it should be a right," West said. The Portland High School graduate was a captain of the Portland-Deering co-op swim team, where she's been a part of two state championship wins. The distance swimmer also competes on a local club team and works as a lifeguard at Old Orchard Beach. West was struck by reports of drowning tragedies in Maine, especially among immigrants and refugees, and she couldn't help but think of her sister: they're both adopted, West from the U.S. and her sister from Ethiopia. "It struck me how fortunate I was to grow up with this privilege," she said. "I realized that I wanted to help others gain that necessary skill." West and a classmate became certified Water Safety Instructors and began offering lessons to fellow students at the Boys & Girls Club pool during a free period. While working with new swimmers, many of them multilingual learners, West said she grew her skills as a communicator and learned how to demonstrate swimming skills with her own body. That project eventually grew into the organization Maine Community Swimming, where West is now an instructor and board member. She's now helped nearly 100 people learn to swim. West's focus on equity also led her to get involved in Portland High's student government, where she held various leadership positions before being elected student body president her senior year. During her tenure, she revolutionized the student council, adding representatives of affinity groups to make the student government more reflective of the school's diversity, bringing free period products to school bathrooms and creating a committee of students to meet with administrators and provide their perspectives on big decisions. Portland High Principal Sheila Jepson awarded West the 2025 MPA Principal's Award, and described her as a "force" for her student government leadership, swim instruction work and her commitment to other activities, including band and Model UN. West is going to Smith College next fall, where she plans to study government and conduct paid research for her first two years thanks to a prestigious scholarship. It was her experience with Maine Community Swimming, West said, that led to an interest in government, particularly grassroots efforts. After college, she hopes to work in a field like public-interest law. "It's made me realize how much I want to continue work like this that has a tangible impact on individuals," she said. "I love seeing the impact." Copy the Story Link
CNN
5 days ago
- Business
- CNN
What cheers at Harvard and boos at Columbia reveal about Trump's campus war
Donald Trump Student life Race & ethnicityFacebookTweetLink Follow When Harvard President Alan Garber took the stage at commencement last week, he was met with cheers. Days earlier, Columbia acting President Claire Shipman was booed. The reactions may seem like campus drama – but they tell a deeper story about how two elite universities chose radically different paths in their battles with the Trump administration. One resisted federal pressure. The other largely complied. Now, those choices are reshaping national debates over who holds power on campus and what higher education should protect. The difference between the two commencements wasn't just about who stood at the podium – it was about how each university chose to respond to the most aggressive federal pressure elite higher education has faced in a generation. Since taking office, the Trump administration has launched a full-scale campaign against student activists amid a broader ideological battle with colleges, threatening federal funding, student visas, institutional reputations and academic partnerships at schools it accused of tolerating antisemitism during campus pro-Palestinian protests. Both Harvard and Columbia became central targets – but they made very different choices. Columbia's administration issued a public apology for its handling of protests on its campus months before Trump took office, disciplined students involved in protests and later took steps to cooperate with federal lawmakers once political pressure intensified. Harvard, in contrast, challenged the administration in court, worked to defend its autonomy and resisted demands to make major policy changes – even as the administration froze federal funds and intensified public attacks. 'The contrast in leadership at the two schools could not have been more stark,' Catherine Ross, a law professor at George Washington University, told CNN. 'Columbia's leadership was unstable and indecisive; Harvard's is strong and experienced.' Now, the fallout is playing out not just in courtrooms and congressional hearings, but on campus quads and graduation stages. Harvard's defiance has drawn praise from many students and faculty, while Columbia's concessions have sparked internal backlash, and deeper divisions. 'When faced with a hostile government takeover, Columbia more or less rolled over,' said Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. 'Harvard decided to fight — and by doing so, Harvard galvanized the larger academic community.' While Harvard's larger endowment may have made it better positioned to clash with the federal government – also having seen how acquiescing early did not protect Columbia – the difference in their responses is notable, education experts say. Here's how each university navigated the Trump administration's mounting pressure – and what their decisions reveal about power, protest and the future of American higher education. As the Trump administration froze billions in federal funds and demanded the university bow to its demands, Harvard pushed back. Garber, the university president, promised to defend the university's right to free speech and maintain the school's independence despite escalating threats. 'Harvard is uniquely positioned to lead this fight on behalf of American higher education,' Ross said. 'Its actions encourage and give permission to other schools to try to defend themselves.' When the Trump administration scrutinized Harvard's handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, it argued the university had failed to prevent antisemitism and responded with a barrage of aggressive measures. The Department of Homeland Security last month temporarily revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students, risking nearly 28% of the student body losing their visas. The administration also froze $2.2 billion in federal funding and $60 million in contracts after the Ivy League school refused to take steps including eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, banning masks at protests, enacting merit-based hiring and admissions changes and reducing the power held by faculty and administrators 'more committed to activism than scholarship.' 'Using federal funding as a cudgel, the feds demanded control of Harvard's core academic decision-making,' Creeley said. 'The First Amendment bars the government from that kind of coercion.' Harvard openly criticized the administration's demands and took the fight to court, challenging the administration's attempts to control campus life. In launching legal challenges to block the funding freeze and visa threats, Harvard argued the government's actions were unconstitutional attacks on free speech and academic freedom – rallying the public around the principle that federal officials shouldn't dictate campus policies. Courts have so far sided with Harvard: A federal judge said Thursday she will order the Trump administration not to make any changes to Harvard's student visa program indefinitely. But President Donald Trump later threw Harvard's ability to enroll international students into doubt again on Wednesday when he signed a proclamation to suspend international visas for new students at Harvard. The funding freeze, meanwhile, is expected to remain in place as the case plays out in court this summer. 'Fighting this requires a deep pocket – like Harvard's endowment – a strong reputation to get public attention and a lot of courage,' Ross said. Meanwhile, Harvard settled two Title VI lawsuits alleging tolerance of antisemitism on campus. As part of the settlement, Harvard implemented several changes, including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism and hiring a point person to consult with on antisemitism complaints. The university's defiance earned Harvard support from many faculty and students, who rallied behind the institution's stance on free expression and academic freedom. Its resistance became a symbol of what it looks like to defend institutional autonomy in an era of political targeting, experts say. 'We are all very proud of the administration for the way it has stood up against the Trump administration – and stood strong,' sophomore Caleb Thompson, co-president of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, told CNN. There have been some concessions by Harvard that drew criticism. Harvard said it turned over data to the Department of Homeland Security in response to the agency's request for information on the illegal activity and disciplinary records of international students – data the agency later called insufficient before attempting to strip the university of its ability to host international students, according to the lawsuit by the university. Last month, the university also made a symbolic bow to White House demands, renaming its diversity, equity and inclusion office. Even if the university wins its legal battles, Harvard faces existential risks. By the time its fight for survival is resolved, the cost to Harvard in lost research and missing generations of students could be immense. Dr. David Walt, a pioneering scientist whose research helped significantly lower the costs of DNA sequencing, told CNN the funding freeze would undoubtedly 'cost lives.' Still, experts say it may discourage similar actions by the Trump administration against other schools. While Harvard's approach was not without risks – frozen grants impacting key research operations, visa uncertainties and threats to its tax-exempt status – the university's refusal to yield sent a powerful message: it would not allow the federal government to dictate its values, higher education experts say. Columbia University faced the same protests and political scrutiny that Harvard did, but chose a markedly different path. In disciplining students and cooperating with the federal government, Columbia hoped to reduce federal scrutiny, experts say. The moves sparked backlash from students and faculty who accused the university of capitulating to the administration's demands. They also apparently didn't go far enough to stave off funding cuts and threats to the university's accreditation. The Trump administration revoked $400 million in federal funding to Columbia, citing the university's alleged failure to address antisemitism during pro-Palestine protests. The administration demanded several policy changes, including a mask ban and a plan 'for comprehensive admissions reform.' In response, Columbia University announced a series of new policies, including restrictions on demonstrations, new disciplinary procedures and a review of its Middle East curriculum, as Armstrong warned losing federal funds would impact the university's critical functions. But the administration did not return the funds, and later went on to declare the school doesn't meet accreditation standards because it allegedly violated the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect Jewish students. 'Columbia erred by failing to demand that the government proceed according to government law and procedures,' Ross said. Title VI requires due process, investigation, congressional approval before funds are withheld and an opportunity for the school to respond, and withholding funds must be limited to the parts of the university that investigation found had violated the law, according to Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. To cut off funds for a hostile environment against Jewish students, there would have to be a finding of 'deliberate indifference' on Columbia's part. In addition to policy changes, Columbia provided conduct reports, email correspondence and investigative reports related to campus protests to federal investigators amid a probe into the university's compliance with federal civil rights laws, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The university also turned over some disciplinary records for students involved in demonstrations following a congressional request, but said it scrubbed them of identifying information, court records show. 'A number of the actions Columbia agreed to could well have been taken …earlier and without government intervention, but Columbia should not have allowed the US to interfere in the university's internal policy and decision-making,' Ross said. The university hoped cooperation would temper federal backlash and protect federal funding, experts say. But the response on campus was fierce. Some students and faculty accused the administration of betraying the university community, prioritizing politics over student rights. The policy changes and enforcement actions were seen by critics as Columbia bowing to the administration's demands, rather than standing up for the values of free speech and academic freedom. 'The mood at Columbia is still pretty dim – we are not too happy with the circumstances in which we find ourselves,' said a member of the Columbia University Senate who requested anonymity to be able to speak freely. 'There's a lot of broad distrust and disappointment in our leadership by recent moves and the way we've responded to these issues.' 'At least with Harvard, they're getting legal victories,' the member of the 111-member policy making body told CNN. 'We've made a short-term calculation.' Shipman, the acting president, said in April that the university has not reached an agreement with the Trump administration and noted that while some of the government's requests align with university policies, 'overly prescriptive requests about our governance, how we conduct our presidential search process, and how specifically to address viewpoint diversity issues are not subject to negotiation.' She said the university would reject 'heavy-handed orchestration from the government.' But the university's leadership may not be able to reach an agreement with the government and has 'made itself deeply unpopular with students' by collaborating with the Trump administration, Columbia math professor Michael Thaddeus told CNN. 'The breadth and ferocity of Trump's attacks on higher education make it clear that he simply wants to do as much damage as possible,' he said. 'Given this reality, all universities, including Columbia, should be fighting back vigorously, using all tools at our disposal, even as we recognize how difficult our circumstances really are.' In the interim, anxiety has spread among students and faculty members on visas or green cards, along with those in the lab sciences impacted by cuts in research funding, according to Thaddeus. Despite these tensions, Columbia avoided some of the harshest financial penalties that hit Harvard. Still, many in the university community believe the toll to its reputation and internal fractures have cost the school more, according to the Columbia University Senate member. Harvard's defiance and Columbia's cooperation reveal two contrasting strategies for navigating the Trump administration's intense scrutiny. Columbia has been 'very bad … but they're working with us on finding a solution and they're taken off that hot seat,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday. 'But Harvard wants to fight, they want to show how smart they are.' By choosing to fight, Harvard accepted short-term risks to defend academic freedom in the long term, experts say, while Columbia opted to cooperate in hopes of safeguarding funding and avoiding harsher penalties. While each tried to protect their institutions, their experiences have sparked discussions about what leadership looks like when universities become flashpoints in national culture wars. The two universities have become easy targets for the administration because the institutions have lost public trust among Americans, Creeley said. But for the Trump administration, Harvard is a more useful target than Columbia. 'For President Trump's constituents, Harvard epitomizes elitism, snobbery and lack of support for American values,' said Benjamin Ginsberg, chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. 'For Trump, a victory over Harvard is meaningful while defeating Columbia is less important.' To that end, the government's actions against Harvard have been more extreme, persistent and seem aimed at destroying the institution, Ross said. Among many reasons for the universities' differing responses: Columbia's battle with the government came first, so Harvard saw that acquiescing early on did not protect the university from further demands and interference, experts say. 'Columbia's efforts to work in good faith with the administration made clear to every college and university the simple fact that this administration isn't interested in addressing antisemitism or working towards good policy,' said Jon Fansmith, the assistant vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education. 'They want to harm and control schools.' Another reason is that Columbia is much more vulnerable than Harvard to pressure from the government because it receives more in government contract and grant dollars and has a smaller endowment, according to Ginsberg. The internal politics of the two universities are also different, with the Columbia board inclined to settle matters with the administration, while some members of the Harvard board – most notably chair Penny Pritzker – favor resistance, Ginsberg said. Together, the responses beg a broader question facing US universities: how to balance political pressures with commitments to free expression and institutional independence. 'If universities like Harvard and Columbia don't stand up for their First Amendment rights as private institutions to make decisions for themselves, then they have failed us,' Creeley said. The cheers at Harvard's graduation and the boos at Columbia's say less about the leaders themselves and more about what their schools chose to stand for – reflecting fundamental debates about the future of higher education in a deeply polarized era. CNN's Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
CNN
7 days ago
- General
- CNN
A community rallies for the release of a beloved high schooler detained by ICE
Calls to 'Free Marcelo' are echoing beyond the high school campus of a Massachusetts town where a standout student was arrested by ICE over the weekend. A vocal contingent of students at the high school in Milford – many wearing white in a show of solidarity – staged a walkout on their campus Monday supporting classmate Marcelo Gomes da Silva, an 18-year-old junior who's now in immigration detention. The governor and a US senator have called for his release. And the school volleyball team – which has a home playoff game Tuesday night – is dedicating the match to him. 'He is a student who was learning every other subject like every other student who is excited about his future,' one classmate told affiliate WCVB on Monday. Gomes da Silva's detention is the latest example of the Trump administration widening its sights beyond violent criminals and gang members without legal status, and another likely case of a collateral arrest in which someone who is not the target of an investigation is swept up by immigration authorities. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Gomes da Silva on Saturday while the honors student was on his way to volleyball practice with two teammates, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said. Agents stopped the car and spoke with all three students. 'By the time I had turned back around, and I was done talking to (the) ICE agent, he was already in handcuffs and being put into the back of the car, which was devastating,' Yago Sampaio, 17, told WCVB. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the traffic stop that resulted in Gomes da Silva's detention, saying in a statement the target of the 'immigration enforcement operation' was the student's father. The statement said his father is in the country illegally and local authorities told ICE he'd been driving recklessly. 'Upon conducting the vehicle stop, officers arrested Marcelo (Gomes da Silva), an illegally present, 18-year-old Brazilian alien and the son of the intended target,' the statement said. 'While ICE officers never intended to apprehend (Gomes da Silva), he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest,' wrote Tricia McLaughlin, the department's assistant secretary for public affairs. Attorney Robin Nice, who is representing the high school student, insists her client has no criminal history and entered the country lawfully in 2013 using a B-2 visa, which allows foreign nationals to visit the United States for tourism or visiting family and friends. Gomes da Silva eventually received a student visa which has since lapsed, Nice said, though it's unclear when it expired; Nice told CNN she expects him to be eligible for asylum and he intends to apply. 'His strong community ties, consistent academic achievement, and involvement in positive extracurricular and faith-based activities underscore the fact that he poses no danger to the community and is not a flight risk,' Nice wrote in a statement to CNN. 'The actions by ICE do not make the community safer, they just sow fear among … immigrants and their loved ones.' Gomes da Silva remained in immigration detention Tuesday, according to ICE records. A federal judge issued an order Monday saying the young man must remain in Massachusetts for at least 72 hours, starting Sunday afternoon, to 'provide the judge who would be randomly assigned the action a fair opportunity to review the merits' of the case. Gomes da Silva is scheduled for an initial hearing before an immigration judge in Massachusetts on Thursday, his attorneys say, at which time he plans to request to be released on bond. Those who know him describe Gomes da Silva as active in his church and community. 'I think because of Marcelo and how he acted towards people, is why so many people came out here today to help support Marcelo,' a Milford High school student said in an interview with WCVB at Monday's student walkout. Healey, the governor, demanded answers from ICE following Gomes da Silva's arrest. 'ICE has had plenty of opportunity to examine whether or not they made a mistake,' Healey said in a video posted to her official X account. 'Unless ICE has additional information that would substantiate that this individual had some criminal involvement, he should be released.' The community launched a fundraiser to help with Gomes da Silva's legal and court expenses and to help support his family. As of Tuesday evening, it had raised nearly $40,000. Ahead of its Tuesday night home playoff game, the Milford High School boys volleyball team dedicated the match to their detained team member and wrote in an Instagram post, 'We will continue to pray and fight for our brother.' 'THIS IS FOR YOU MARCELO,' the team wrote in capital letters. 'PACK THE STANDS, NO EMPTY SEATS. WEAR WHITE. WE LOVE YOU MARCELO.' 'Marcelo should have been playing the drums at Milford High's graduation on Sunday, not trapped in a detention center,' said Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, in a video posted on X. 'This isn't about public safety,' Markey added. 'This about cruelty, and power, and fear engendered by the Trump administration. To the Milford community, I'm with you as we tell the Trump administration to keep its hands off your kids. And I am with you in calling on ICE to free Marcelo.' CNN's Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
Washington Post
29-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil's detention ruled likely unconstitutional
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist whom the government is seeking to deport, was likely to prevail in his argument that his detention was unconstitutional. But he declined to issue a preliminary injunction in the case, so Khalil will remain in detention — unlike several other high-profile cases of international students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration because of their pro-Palestinian activities.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Two Hopkins students for Palestine injured during police destruction of encampment, activists say
Two Johns Hopkins University student protesters for Palestine were injured during the university's response to an encampment Thursday morning, a campus activist group said. 'Within the hour, demonstrators were met with indiscriminate aggression and physical harassment by armed Johns Hopkins Police and Baltimore Police officers, resulting in the injury of two students and destruction of personal belongings,' wrote Hopkins Justice Collective in a Friday news release. A university spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that school officials did not observe any injuries. More than 30 officers from Johns Hopkins Police and the Baltimore Police Department were deployed to the encampment site on Hopkins' Keyser Quad on its Homewood campus, the release says. Officers threatened arrests and engaged in 'threats and verbal harassment well outside the scope of their putative role of enforcers of public safety,' it says. The non-life-threatening injuries resulted from when 'officers pulled canopies down onto students' heads, significantly bruising protestors and causing wounds to the mouth,' according to the collective. Photos posted to the group's Instagram show some of the injuries, including of bruises and a split lip. Hopkins says the protest was against its policies, as encampments are not permitted. A university spokesperson said Thursday that only Johns Hopkins Public Safety and Johns Hopkins Police responded to the encampment and that the incident was handled in 'an orderly and highly professional manner.' The Baltimore Police Department did not immediately respond to The Baltimore Sun's questions Sunday. 'Rather than engage with us in good faith, Hopkins called armed officers on the protest, not hesitating to use violence against any sign of dissent,' Hopkins Justice Collective said. The group is demanding the Baltimore university divest from Israel and Israeli companies, end the presence of Hopkins' police force and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on campus, and 'commit to science for humanity.' The last demand entails a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in scientific research, and that the university convert its Applied Physics Laboratory 'from a manufacturer of death to a laboratory dedicated to scientific research for humanity.' The Applied Physics Lab received a maximum contract of $3 billion from the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency in December. 'The APL makes it clear that JHU is a military research institution first, and a university second,' Hopkins Justice Collective wrote in February in an op-ed in the school's student newspaper. The organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hopkins Justice Collective also said the chief the university's police force threatened protesters with arrest. 'At one point, Johns Hopkins Police Captain Branville Bard had to be restrained by another member of public safety personnel who had to remind him to stand down. At another point, he 'singled out a protest[e]r: 'If you keep this up, you'll be the first one arrested,' the release says. In a statement sent to the school community Friday, Bard and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Rachelle Hernandez wrote that the incident took less than an hour to resolve and involved fewer than 25 people. Later, a smaller group of HJC members tried to reoccupy the quad that afternoon, but protesters departed after being asked to leave, the statement says. It added that the Hopkins Justice Collective 'is not a recognized student organization, and their members have repeatedly violated university policies.' 'We are taking both of these incidents very seriously. Johns Hopkins supports free speech, including protest and demonstration,' Hernandez and Bard wrote. 'But encampments are not how we engage with one another as a community – and Johns Hopkins does not tolerate antisemitism or other forms of group hatred and discrimination.' Thursday's protests are now being investigated by Hopkins' Office of Student Conduct for violations of the school's protest and demonstration policies, as well as the Office of Institutional Equity, which will investigate threats, harassment, intimidation or discrimination under Title VI, the statement says. Hopkins recently resolved a Title VI investigation with the U.S. Department of Education. 'We can and should take up hard issues and engage in serious dialogue with those with whom we disagree, but we must do it in a way that allows for genuine, open, and thoughtful debate and enables everyone to participate in those conversations without fear of intimidation,' Hernandez and Bard said in the statement. Hopkins' police force has long been controversial, inspiring protests since its inception. Most recently, a coalition of activists including Hopkins faculty protested City Hall demanding a public hearing on the force. Student activity in support of Palestine exploded last year nationwide after Israel's offensive in Gaza responding to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2024, attack. At Hopkins, the student encampment lasted for 13 days after negotiations with school administration yielded a commitment that the school would review students' demand of divestiture. In January, the university's Public Interest Investment Advisory Committee said it would not refer the divestment proposal to the school's board of trustees, partly due to a lack of consensus among the school's community. ________
