Empowering students to lead

Meet Najeh Abduljalil ’26, U.S. Army veteran and the affairs coordinator for the Cornell Undergraduate Veterans Association. He is a Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar, and in 2023, he received the Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award for establishing Cornell Undergraduate Research to Action Youth.

What has Cornell made possible for you?

Cornell has allowed me to turn my passion for community-based research into real, impactful work. I came to Cornell with experience from my hometown in Reno, but here, I was able to take that foundational experience and scale it up. At Cornell, I found the resources, networks, and institutional support to start Cornell Undergraduate Research to Action Youth, which has empowered youth from local underserved communities to research alternatives to construction and demolition waste in their communities. Without support from Cornell—especially without funders such as the Community Partnership Funding Board—I don't think this work would have been possible.