Graduate's Story Gets Worldwide Attention

It was a simple conversation. University of St. Thomas public safety manager Bill Carter and his staff talked with a woman who was graduating with a master's degree. She was determined to walk across the stage on the evening of Saturday, May 19, even though she had just given birth the night before. Carter told the Marketing, Insights and Communications (MIC) public relations team, who jumped on the story, taking video of Zeinab Abdalla walking across the stage and then interviewing her. The end result was an edited video for the university's Twitter account.

See the video here.

Since that tweet, Abdalla's story has gone viral: The video had a combined 114,590 views across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; the Tweet has also garnered 1,198 retweets and 165,344 impressions.

Instagram	Twitter	Facebook
2,197 views	92,225 views	20,168 views
348 likes	1,198 retweets	1,100 likes
4,724 reach	36,410 engagements	39,332 reach
6,881 impressions	165,344 impressions	315 (total) comments and shares

Media outlets from the Twin Cities and around the world have reached out to feature Abdalla, resulting in 1.6 million impressions across coverage from dozens of outlets, including:

People around the world are amazed by Abdalla's determination and strength. The university's MIC team appreciates Carter and his staff for pointing out such a positive and uplifting story on a busy commencement day.

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