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Magni Hamso

Biography

Graduate Scholarship Biography (prepared September 2005): First named a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar in 2003 through the Undergraduate Scholarship Program, Magni Hamso made campaigning for the rights of the homeless a principal focus while at Yale. She sought to revitalize Respect Line, an advocacy group composed primarily of the homeless themselves and, when New Haven closed its overflow emergency shelter in 2002, she helped organize what one professor called "a clever and effective protest strategy" of creating a temporary tent city on the New Haven Green. After the shelter reopened two months later, Magni continued to work with the homeless, advocating for better shelter policies and running a homeless community center. She also worked to prevent future shelter closings by helping raise more than $200,000 to finance an emergency shelter's operations.

Magni's move from Norway to the US when she was nine, and the attendant frustrations of not speaking English, sparked her interest in the social issues surrounding immigration. She volunteered with related causes in high school and by college was working with Somali immigrants in Minnesota, with street children in Ecuador, and with homeless people in New Haven.

As Magni's academic work supplemented her hands-on experience, she became convinced that "socioeconomic, language and cultural barriers to health still exist throughout our communities." Determined to be part of the solution and help others communicate where once she could not, she took a second major in Spanish at Yale. At Columbia, she plans to get degrees that will enable her to combine social work with medicine to help medically underserved people "transform poor health into a conquerable obstacle."

Undergraduate Scholarship Biography (prepared May 2003): Magni Hamso arrived at Yale with a perfect high school GPA, a Certificate of Merit (the Presidential award for education excellence), and a Certificate of Meritorious Service. And she has carried on academically, excelling in two majors, Spanish and Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry.

Perhaps her greatest distinction, however, has been her advocacy for the homeless. During the summer of 2000, Magni worked and volunteered for Mobile Medical Care, which provides healthcare for homeless and non-insured people in Montgomery County, MD. She gained certifications in first aid, oxygen delivery, CPR, and automated external defibrillation administration.

When New Haven closed its overflow emergency shelter in 2002, Magni helped organize a powerful response by creating Respect Line, a homeless advocacy group. Magni organized a tent city on the city green to protest and provide a safe place for the men to sleep. She lived there, assigned tents, and led meetings to keep order. She met with politicians, city officials, religious and community leaders, and the press. The shelter was re-opened and Magni now works to solve problems and enact policy changes. She has been able to exercise effective leadership and to form bonds of mutual respect both with the individuals she is serving and with individuals in positions of power.

In preparation for a career providing medicine and public health in the inner city, Magni volunteered in two hospital emergency rooms and one intensive care unit, interned for a non-profit offering preventive health abroad, and worked on a health/education initiative with Somali immigrants.

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