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26 ACUMEN • SPRING 2021 “There’s been a little bit of pressure to do well in school given that I am a first-generation college student and need to make use of the hard work of my parents,” says Alam, whose father is a self-employed driver and his mother, a homemaker, recently took a part-time job to help with her son’s student loans. One of the opportunities Alam pursued was accepting Lehigh’s invitation to join the highly selec- tive Eckardt Scholars honors program in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). The program emphasizes intellectual curiosity, independent work, and close mentoring relationships between students and faculty. Dual majoring in psychology and political science, Alam arrived at Lehigh seeking forums or clubs that offered good faith, but difficult and honest dialogue about sociocultural and political issues. Not finding what he was looking for, he exhibited the attributes of an Eckardt Scholar—determination and leadership—and launched the Douglass Dialogues Club this fall while taking classes remotely from home because of the pandemic. “I wanted a place where anyone who wanted to talk about important issues can just do that. The only thing that we preselect for is passionate, intellectual curiosity,” said Alam, who named the club after aboli- tionist Frederick Douglass, who believed that free speech should grant people the right to be exposed to views and examine them in a respectful manner. “Raihan’s intellectual curiosity and willingness to explore complex questions from a variety of different perspectives exemplify the qualities we seek in Eckardt San Francisco native Raihan Alam ’23 ran a Google search to find a liberal arts college far from home where he could gain independence, have quality instruction, and build relationships with profes- sors, while not going into complete debt. His parents immigrated from Bangladesh and became U.S. citi- zens, and Alam knew that no matter where he went to college, he had to make the most of his opportunity. MARC OLIVIER LE BLANC Eckardt Scholar Creates Respectful Discourse Club Open to All DAWN THREN ’ 2 1 P Raihan Alam ’23 creates a group dedicated to addressing tough sociocultural and political issues