Mashal Saif came to Macalester from Pakistan. She graduated in 2006 with an International Studies and Religious Studies double major. She was a leader in civic engagement and served on the Lilly Project Advisory Board between 2003-2005. Mashal was also the co-chair for the Muslim Student Association (MSA) for 2 and a half years. Under her leadership she turned an organization that was a handful of male students into a large association that provided space for prayer and breakfast everyday throughout the month of Ramadan and offered an Eid celebration to which the entire Macalester Community was invited. She created a community for Muslim students that had not existed at Macalester, allowing students' Muslim identity to be an important part of their Macalester experience.

During Mashal’s junior year she was a recipient of the Lilly Summer Research Grant. She used the grant to spend three months in Pakistan conducting research on Islam and women's issues, with an emphasis on the Hudood Ordinances (a set of gender biased but allegedly religiously legitimized laws in Pakistan). Mashal named her Lilly summer research as likely the most important academic experience she had at Macalester. It was monumental in helping her decide what she wanted do with her life after college. She applied to graduate school in Religious Studies and chose a Ph.D. program at Duke University to further pursue Islamic Studies and in particular the Hudood Ordinance.

The Lilly Project also had a personal impact on Mashal beyond shaping her academic trajectory. She states, “Working for Aurat Foundation (the non-governmental organization where I conducted my summer research) made me realize the importance and dire need of not just studying Islam and Islamic Law but also of using my research towards a better end. Hopefully that of impacting the society that I live in, and especially the society and country that I grew up in.” Her honors project at Macalester focused on refuting the religious legitimacy of the Hudood Ordinances, and she and her faculty advisor collaborated on producing an article on her Lilly research and findings. She goes on to say, “I hope to produce other papers that will contribute not just to the academic sphere but are also applicable and helpful in addressing issues that are relevant to the larger Muslim community, specifically that in Pakistan.”

As Macalester produces global thinkers and leaders, the Lilly Project helps students like Mashal to ask how their religious tradition contributes to societal transformation and encourages them to use this knowledge to be leaders in both religious and secular arenas.