# Munira Khalif

> Munira Khalif (b.1996): sixth US Youth Observer to the UN, co-founder of Lighting the Way.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/munira-khalif/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is she?

Munira Khalif is a first-generation Somali-American, born in 1996 and raised in Minneapolis, who served as the sixth United States Youth Observer to the United Nations in 2018–2019 ([Wikipedia, Munira Khalif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munira_Khalif)). See [Somalis in Minneapolis–St Paul](/en/diaspora/minneapolis-st-paul/).

## Education

She went to Mounds Park Academy, graduating in 2015 as commencement speaker ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munira_Khalif)). That year she made national news when she was accepted by all eight Ivy League schools as well as Georgetown, Stanford and the University of Minnesota, and went on to study economics and government at Harvard (same source).

## Work

She co-founded Lighting the Way, a youth-run non-profit working to make education more accessible for girls in East Africa, and advises Girl Up at the United Nations Foundation ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munira_Khalif)). She was appointed US Youth Observer to the UN in 2017, a role chosen each year by the State Department and the UN Association of the USA (same source). She received the Youth Courage Award from the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, one of nine recipients worldwide (same source).

## In short

A Minneapolis Somali student who represented American youth at the UN.

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