Meet Our Scholars

Kay Adam is a Minnesota transplant after emigrating from Kenya as a Somali Refugee in 2004. In the short time that they stayed in the United States, they have been involved in social justice issues almost from day one after experiencing significant personal marginalization. After getting hired to work as a janitor as a 16 year old at a LGBTQ youth center, Kay went on to lead efforts in finding stable housing for peers with a piece of legislation that raised significant monies for local youth shelters. In addition to his community organizing for Homeless Youth Initiatives, they were a leader at their school's gay-straight alliance. Kay attended Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota. They studied quantitative economics with minors in mathematics and communication studies. They are an Active Amateur Photographer and two of their photos ended up being the post card's for the Minnesota Runaway & Homeless Youth Act, on which they worked. Kay hopes to go to graduate school for either statistics or economics. They plan to use quantitative tools to help inform policy making at the federal and state level. Kay is interested in extending the privileges afforded to them to others who haven't been fortunate enough to obtain higher education. Kay speaks three languages and also hopes to use their international experiences to inform policy making. Currently, they are interested in issues surrounding health policy, security policy and international economic development. In addition to their thesis on Health Policy being accepted for an oral presentation at a National Undergraduate Research Conference, Kay was a McNair Scholar, Martin Olav Sabo Scholar, A Soul Essence Community Leadership Award winner, a North Star Stem Scholar and a Pfund Scholar for  academic excellence and volunteerism.