Closing the opportunity gap drives University of Richmond alum’s work
Omar Ibrahim embraces opportunity wherever he finds it. At age 3, he moved with his family from the bustling metropolis of Alexandria, Egypt, to rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where his working-class parents hoped to find better opportunities for their two young sons. And they did.
“My parents sacrificed so my brother and I could go to college,” said Ibrahim, who received a Pell Grant to attend University of Richmond. “On the day I left home for Richmond, my dad told me, ‘This was my dream! You’ve made my dream come true!’”
As an undergraduate in Tom Shields’ Education and Equity class, he learned how years of redlining and reliance on local taxes to fund public education created opportunity gaps. He witnessed many of those gaps firsthand while completing his Bonner Scholar service as a mentor at a Richmond-area Boys and Girls Club.
Today, the 2021 graduate of the University’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies is an associate with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative. There he works to expand opportunities for residents of the city he now calls home.
The initiative provides policymakers and other decision-makers with data, analysis, and examples of promising practices to address key challenges facing Philadelphia, home to several generations of the Pew family. Since joining Pew two years ago, Ibrahim has contributed to the initiative’s annual state-of-the-city report, which tracks issues including crime, housing, employment, educational attainment, and more.
He also participates in the initiative’s state-of-the-city convening, an annual event that brings together Philadelphians from all walks of life to discuss the city’s past, present, and future, drawing from issues covered in the report.
“What does it mean to be a person attached to the data, to be one of the numbers?” Ibrahim asked. “We brought in a union worker to speak at the convening, and a restaurant owner to talk about the city’s economy, and someone from the arts community to talk about arts funding. At the convening, we try to paint an all-encompassing picture of what it’s like to be a Philadelphian.”
That picture sometimes involves moving beyond the city limits. For example, the alum recently attended meetings focused on how the city and neighboring counties can collaborate to promote regional growth that benefits all. Pew’s mission to improve public policy, inform the public, and invigorate civic life drives all this work, he said.
“We want Philadelphia to be a place for everyone, where everyone has opportunities,” he said. “This work marries my lived experience with my volunteer and academic experience. It’s my responsibility to pay it forward. Policy work is a way to continue to advocate.”
Ibrahim, who earned a master’s in social policy from the University of Pennsylvania, wants to further his knowledge of policy by enrolling in law school next fall. He said he hopes to gain a better understanding of why some legislation — such as the Biden administration’s proposed student loan forgiveness — doesn’t clear the legal hurdles.
“Making opportunities as equal as possible is a life-long mission I will continue to work toward,” he said. “Certain groups of people are no less capable than others. But if you don’t have a path, how will you get there?”