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Reluctant focus
Journalism major Omar Tesdell named to USA Today's college academic
team.
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Most of Omar Tesdell's life, he been at the forefront of issues.
That propensity for the limelight is not something that Tesdell, a senior
journalism major, relishes.
In fact, if he could, he would be a behind-the-scenes type of guy, letting
others be in the spotlight.
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't the focus," he says. "Shy is
not quite the word I would use to describe myself. I guess I'm uncomfortable
with a lot of publicity.
"Everything I've done is really a group effort and it's important
to me that others get noticed as well.
For the last few months though it has been Tesdell that has received the
notoriety. The Iowa State University Alumni Association has named him
one of four recipients of the Wallace E. Barron All-University Senior
Award.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has selected Tesdell to be its
featured student speaker at its graduation awards ceremony on Friday,
May 8, and will recognize him during the University's graduation ceremony
on Saturday, May 9.
And USA Today named him to its 2004 All-USA College Academic
Second Team.
That was an honor that he didn't seek out.
"Mark Witherspoon (advisor to the Iowa State Daily) and
Liz Beck (director of Iowa State's Honors Program) both e-mailed me that
I had to fill out the application for this award," Tesdell said.
"I knew about it last year and decided not to apply, but both Mark
and Liz helped get me through the process this year."
Tesdell isn't your normal selection for the USA Today academic
team. While he has an outstanding GPA, he hasn't accomplished the traditional
things that get students noticed for this honor.
He hasn't conducted research on vascular changes in heart failure or developed
a math model to compute fluid dynamic derivatives for NASA or created
laser-imaging techniques to examine tumors below the surface.
USA Today recognized Tesdell instead for developing a community
building model in which disparate groups developed a joint public statement
in the spring of 2003 as the second Iraqi War was beginning.
What's amazing about that accomplishment was that he got a group he co-founded,
Time for Peace, to issue the statement along with Arab and Jewish students
on campus and the College Republicans.
"We (Time for Peace) reached out to these groups," Tesdell said.
"I had lunch with the president of the College Republicans, worked
out the statement, and now we're good friends."
An Arab-American who grew up on a farm near Slater, Tesdell still has
close ties to the Middle East where his mother's family still resides.
He spent last summer in the region and plans to return when he graduates
from Iowa State in May.
Tesdell is a man of peace. His heroes are Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Mahatma Gandhi.
"It's really an unfortunate stereotype," he says of the view
of the angry and violent young Arab male. "It works to the advantage
that violence is the prevailing mode of social change.
"It denies the history of non-violence in Palestine. The daily life
of Palestinians is a form of non-violent action. But that doesn't get
the (news) coverage of a bunch of whackos with guns."
Instead Tesdell is a peace activist who, while in high school, helped
raise the consciousness of his fellow students on the Kosovo conflict.
Two summers ago he attended a Civil Rights Summer at Harvard University.
"I really want to be able to give a voice to people that normally
don't have a voice," he said.
Around LAS
April 19 to May 9, 2004
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