President's Charge to Shamil Idriss '94

Shamil Idriss — you grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut, the son of immigrants — your mother from Turkey and your father from Syria. At Swarthmore, you majored in economics and philosophy, with a concentration in public policy. Although your years on the College’s football team may not have presaged your future as a peacebuilder, your longtime passion for conflict prevention came through loud and clear in your Honors thesis on the subject.

You first came to Search for Common Ground as an intern the summer before your senior year at Swarthmore, drawn by the opportunity to work on issues concerning Middle Eastern policy. You now lead this international organization, which specializes in turning conflict into cooperation.  

Rather than focus on an adversarial approach to drive social change, you and your colleagues do whatever you can to build trust, respect, and collaboration across stakeholder groups so that you can tackle issues together. Not only does this approach help resolve specific disputes, it creates real, systemic change. 

Shamil Idriss, you have insisted on the importance of learning the lessons of the past and embracing the value of justice and pluralism in order to build lasting trust and strengthen community bonds. Now, upon the recommendation of the faculty, and by the power vested in me by the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I have the honor to bestow upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.