No matter where you come from or which language you speak, there is a place for you in Harrisonburg and at EMU, and Nasser Alsaadun MA ’17 (education) is living proof of that.

The Iraqi-born educator, who came to the United States in 2008, became the first refugee councilmember in the city’s history when he was elected last fall and began his in January. He says his presence on council sends a clear message that Harrisonburg is diverse and accepting and that local immigrants can feel welcome as a part of the community.

“People can all live in peace and learn from one another—your culture, my culture. We’re all in the same pot,” Alsaadun said. “I think that’s actually a unique thing about this area.”

Through his advocacy work, Alsaadun ensures that the Friendly City lives up to its name as a welcoming place for people of all backgrounds. He volunteers with , a local office of Church World Service that serves and advocates for refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and immigrants in the Shenandoah Valley.

He is also a founder and board member of the , a community group that works to make the city more inclusive and supportive for immigrants and newcomers, addressing challenges they face, building relationships with them, and connecting them with resources.

One of those resources is EMU’s renowned Intensive English Program (IEP). Alsaadun, who teaches Arabic courses as an at James Madison University and English Language Learner (ELL) classes for Rockingham County Public Schools, often motivates residents to enroll in IEP classes. The program, hosted in EMU’s Roselawn Building, helps English language learners from all around the world find their voice and build a better life for themselves. In a typical semester, IEP has 60 to 80 students of varying ages and language skill levels representing 15 to 20 countries.

“EMU has one of the best English programs in the area,” Alsaadun said. “It has a great reputation with the immigrant community.”

He added that graduates of IEP are highly proficient, professional, and well-prepared to continue their education, not just at EMU, but at any university. “From Winchester to Charlottesville, (that program) is the best there is.”

Did you know?
In Harrisonburg City Public Schools, more than 70 languages are spoken by the student population. The No. 1 spoken language isn’t English—it’s Spanish! Source: in the Daily News-Record. Learn more about IEP at .

Escaping danger

Alsaadun grew up in Iraq and graduated from the University of Basrah in 1997 with a bachelor of arts in English. When the Iraq War broke out, he served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in 2003. Because of his help, he became a target of militia insurgents, who came looking for him. When they couldn’t find him, they kidnapped his father for two days, then tortured and killed him.

Alsaadun and his family fled to Syria and later relocated to Lebanon, where they received refugee status from the United Nations. They arrived in the United States in July 2008 and were resettled by CWS Harrisonburg.

While serving as a temporary instructor for JMU’s foreign language department, Alsaadun started working with the refugee resettlement office and other organizations to welcome newcomers and help refugees adjust to their new life. As he helped connect immigrants to EMU’s Intensive English Program, he learned more about the university. He had heard so many success stories about its graduates and decided to enroll. And in 2017, he graduated from EMU with a master of arts in education.

It had always been his father’s dream to see him earn a master’s degree, shared Alsaadun, and so it was especially meaningful to him. “I cried,” he said, “because I couldn’t have him there with me seeing that moment.”

‘A different touch’

Since graduating from EMU, Alsaadun has continued his studies through courses at JMU and the University of Virginia. He said EMU professors are unlike any others he has encountered in his education.

“I was blessed to have professors who recognized and appreciated the gifts I had,” Alsaadun said. “They knew I wasn’t a native English speaker and that I came from a different culture. Some teachers expect you to know everything, but my teachers at EMU understood that sometimes you struggle. That kind of understanding is unique to EMU.”

In August, while attending a city/EMU liaison committee meeting as a council representative, he received an email confirming his acceptance into the doctoral program at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He is now in his first semester, pursuing a PhD of education in curriculum and instruction, and credited EMU and its professors for providing the tools and skills that have helped him succeed.

“It’s absolutely a different taste of education,” he said. “The courses at EMU have a different touch.”

Alsaadun, now a U.S. citizen with a wife and four children, opened Babylon, a Middle Eastern restaurant and market in Harrisonburg, in 2016. He’s been invited to the White House on two occasions. He met former President Barack Obama in July 2016, in appreciation for “serving the community and being a good role model for refugees” and attended a leadership summit on refugees at the White House that September. He received the Leader of the Year award from Church World Service in 2022.

The transition committee will help lay the groundwork of Spanberger’s administration, “focused on lowering costs, expanding economic opportunity, increasing business investment in Virginia’s economy, and creating a safer Commonwealth for all Virginia families,” a announced on Nov. 14.

“These Virginians not only bring together deep ties from across every region of our Commonwealth, but the experience, integrity, and know-how required to deliver the pragmatic and principled leadership that Virginians overwhelmingly voted for this November,” Spanberger said in the release. “These leaders are united for one purpose: putting Virginia first. They will help ensure my administration is ready on day one to begin saving Virginians money, protecting Virginia’s jobs and small businesses, and strengthening the security of our Commonwealth.”

Reed has served as mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, since 2017, when she was first elected to City Council. She is the first African American woman elected to the council and also the first to be appointed mayor. Last year, she was reelected to a fourth term, from 2025 to 2028. In February, she was named one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of Virginia for 2025 by Women We Admire.

“It’s an honor to work alongside other leaders from across Virginia to help advance the vision Gov.-elect Spanberger has for the Commonwealth,” Reed said. “This is an incredible opportunity for Harrisonburg, and I’m thrilled to share the work we’re doing here.”

Read our story below to learn how she motivates students to become civically engaged.

In addition to her role as mayor, Reed co-founded On the Road Collaborative, an afterschool program that empowers middle and high school students with educational opportunities and hands-on career experiences. 

She was EMU’s commencement speaker in 2020 and has been an active contributor to campus life, participating in convocations and special events such as the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. In 2023, she joined EMU as its regional advancement director.

Watch WHSV-TV3’s coverage of the news !

Reed, who is running for reelection this year, has served as mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, since 2017, when she was first elected to City Council. She is the first African American woman elected to the council and also the first to be appointed mayor. At EMU she is director of alumni engagement & community connections.

During the second annual Stroll to the Polls event on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Rockingham County Circuit Courthouse in downtown Harrisonburg, Reed rallied students from EMU and James Madison University, as well as others in the community, to cast their ballots on the first day of early voting in Virginia. The event aims to increase voter turnout, especially among college students, with marches proceeding from the steps of the courthouse to the city and county polling places.

One of those students attending the rally, EMU sophomore Elie Hoover, a social work and music major, said that having a local leader actively involved on campus helps keep her politically engaged. She feels proud to be an EMU student, she added, knowing that the school has representation in city government.

“I want to do my part because she’s doing her part for us,” Hoover said.

At the Stroll to the Polls event, as she walked along Main Street toward City Hall with a group of other students, EMU junior Royale Parker waved a “Virginia Votes Early” sign and enthusiastically encouraged passing drivers to vote.

Parker, a business administration and psychology major, said she once believed there was no use in voting. “I was one of those students who thought my voice didn’t matter and that my vote didn’t count,” she said. 

But interacting with Reed through committees and clubs on campus has shown her that everyone has a voice and a vote, including her. Reed, she said, has introduced students at EMU to political issues they might have otherwise not known about and has also helped them understand the voting process.

“She’s inspired me to become more involved and excited to vote,” Parker said. 

EMU senior Kay Pettus, a music major and president of the Black Student Alliance (BSA), proudly displayed her “I Voted” sticker as she exited City Hall during the first day of early voting. Pettus, who organized the shuttles for BSA members from EMU to downtown Harrisonburg, said that Reed regularly works with BSA and encourages them to participate in civic events. She said that seeing Reed and others speak at the rally was a powerful experience. 

“I like that they were encouraging students and young people to vote,” Pettus said, “because it is important and our voices do count.”

Students who identify with a political party different than Reed’s say they’ve felt her support. Jason Dwyer, a senior political science and history double major who leads the EMU College Republicans club, said the Democratic mayor takes care to engage with everyone on campus. “I don’t know how many other colleges can say they have a mayor on staff and as part of their community,” he said.

Reed said she felt honored and privileged to know her presence and involvement on campus as a mayor has helped students engage in politics.

“It’s gratifying to see the impact of student participation in shaping our community and beyond,” she said. “Students’ voices are not just significant, they’re essential. Their voices matter and have the power to shape the future, and that is incredibly motivating.”

Her experience reflects the new ways and new places that education takes place these days for EMU students, including , , grant-funded research and practicums, and being part of a cohort at a site to which EMU faculty come for classes.

Enns, from Winnipeg, Canada, lived in the nation’s capital at . While taking two courses at the center, she worked at , an interfaith coalition that seeks to end anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. As an intern with the organization, she used her experience as co-editor of , EMU’s student newspaper, to produce a bi-weekly newsletter, compile fact sheets, and otherwise pitch in on the group’s various initiatives.

An internship through EMU’s Washington center is more than just a taste of real-world work and an opportunity to develop contacts, ideas, and credentials for life after college. It’s also a launching point for deeper examination of the relationship between faith, values, and career.

“How do we as Mennonites engage the state, and how much do we build our alternative systems?” asked Enns, whose great-grandparents were part of the mass migration of Mennonites from Russia to North America during the turbulent years after the Bolshevik Revolution.

What relationship, exactly, should a person of faith hold toward advocacy in a secular environment, she wonders. Doesn’t faith like hers, one that prescribes action on behalf of “the least among us,” require this sort of entanglement with the wider world? But does this very entanglement with the wider world undermine the foundations of her faith?

Enns doesn’t have answers to her questions yet, but she knows she would like to continue doing faith-based advocacy after she graduates this spring. In fact, her plans at this point are to join .

During her four-year career at EMU, Enns took advantage of other non-traditional ways of learning.

Soon after she arrived on campus as a first-year student, she took an optional field trip with her Restorative Justice and Trauma class to a penitentiary, where she participated in three days of a Quaker-developed “Alternatives to Violence Program” with inmates.

In her sophomore year, Enns satisfied EMU’s cross-cultural requirement by creating her own semester-long study experience in the African nation of Chad, where her parents were serving with .

For 10 weeks between her junior and senior years, Enns was part of a offered at EMU that gives college students a chance to be an intern, mentored by a pastor, in a congregational  setting. Her assignment was at .

EMU offers a variety of other new ways and places for students to pursue their education.

More and more graduate students are taking their courses online, usually studying from their homes. The was the first unit at EMU to offer distance learning, and now most of EMU’s also offer courses online.

Nurses who are studying for a master’s degree in nursing leadership and management don’t have to come to campus very often (or to .).  The program is designed for working nurses who need to maintain family commitments and remain on the job. Jeanette Nisly ’96, for example, is and raising two children with her Guatemalan husband.

Sometimes the students are surprised to see that online learning actually offers more interaction with class members and professors than a traditional classroom. A faculty advisor provides ongoing support for students and helps with logistics, technology questions, and other issues. Students also receive support from staff, graduate writing tutors, and library staff.

Other non-traditional learning opportunities at EMU:

• , which offers a mix of study through the annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU and experiences in the students’ home countries. The first group, in 2012, included 12 women from Africa and the South Pacific. They were selected from more than 100 applications. Funds for the program are provided by USAID and the German development organization, EED/Bread for the World.

• . The latest example, announced in February, is a $20,000 grant from the United Service Foundation that will send eight undergraduates to foreign locations (Colombia and Iran in 2013), supervised by an EMU-linked mentor. The grants are for peacebuilding and development majors, who are required to complete off-campus practicums.

• . Many of the students enrolled in EMU’s programs run from Lancaster, Pa., don’t actually go to classes at the center’s facility in a business park. Students in the pastoral studies program, for example, attend classes this spring at Lancaster Mennonite Conference offices or sites in Philadelphia, Hatfield, and Morgantown. The three-year program, called , is for new pastors or prospective pastors.

• Taking trauma courses all over the world. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, established a program to help community leaders deal with the trauma of disasters and conflict. Called , the program has trained more than 7,000 people worldwide. The training seminars take place at EMU, across the United States, and all over the world in places like Lebanon, Haiti, and Mexico.

AKRON, Pa.- Earl and Pat Hostetter Martin grew up in Mennonite homes where politics remained separate from their parents’ lives, where voting was not considered a duty and where existence was grounded in the kingdom of God, not of the world.

But the suffering and death they encountered as (MCC) workers in Vietnam in the 1960s convinced them that the faith they had been taught – combined with the atrocities they were witnessing – forced them to speak to their government.

“When you see the effects of government policies, it doesn’t make sense to say, ‘I will be silent in the face of this destruction,'” Earl Martin said.

Since then, the couple has continued to speak to the “principalities and powers.” They will join a selection of scholars, theologians and pastors exploring the intersection of faith and politics at a Sept. 23-25 conference, “,” in Harrisonburg, Va., and Bridgewater, Va.

Held at EMU and , conference sessions will explore how Christians in the “Believers Church” tradition understand their witness for God and their relationship to political authority in light of living in a democracy that is the world’s dominant power.

Churches usually associated with the Believers Church tradition include Adventists, Baptists, Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Mennonites, Methodists, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren and Quakers.

The conference focuses on the meaning of citizenship in the United States, said Steve Longenecker, professor of history at Bridgewater College and planning committee member: “The planners observed that the United States currently possesses and exercises unprecedented influence on a global scale. The conference is designed to clarify what it means to be both citizens of the state and members of the body of Christ.”

Sessions approach the topic from biblical, historical and theological perspectives, with speakers from academic circles and the broader church. Presentations will range from biblical sermons to academic papers to autobiographical narratives. Critical analysis will be interspersed with reflective worship, integrating scholarly, pastoral and activist perspectives.

The Martins will present their autobiographical reflections in “Believers’ Journeys and Politics.” Other conference sessions include “Believers as Sisters and Brothers in the Church Worldwide,” “Theological Perspectives on Political Authority,” “Believers and Political Authority in History” and “Believers and Political Authority in the Bible.”

Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the , will address the conference Friday night. Edgar served eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives, followed by a 12-year tenure as president of Claremont School of Theology. An ordained United Methodist elder, Edgar has also been pastor of several congregations, a college chaplain and a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

The conference, the 15th in a series that addresses Believers Church issues, is sponsored by EMU, Bridgewater, the MCC U.S. Washington Office, the Baptist Joint Committee Washington, D.C., and Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office.

To register or to learn more, see . Early fees must be postmarked by Aug. 27.

Marla Pierson Lester is a writer/editor for MCC Communications.