Over the summer, as University of Pennsylvania senior Adam Adnane was riding the train with his father on the way home from his research position at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he quickly consulted his phone to find out when the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha was going to fall this year.

“I randomly looked up when the holiday was going to see whether I was going to go home or stay on campus, and I saw that tentatively it was going to be September 11 or 12,” he says. “And I was like, wow, out of all the days that it could show up, September 11th?”

Eid al-Adha, a holiday that recognizes sacrifice and is celebrated by Muslims by making donations to their mosques and to people in need, is marked on the lunar calendar and thus shifts about 11 days each year. When Adnane saw the 2016 date, he was concerned that Muslims’ acts of celebration for Eid could be misinterpreted as reveling in the 9/11 anniversary.

To prevent this misperception, despite a jam-packed academic and extracurricular schedule, the Philadelphia native launched an effort to support those affected by 9/11. His fundraising and awareness-raising campaign brought together diverse communities on campus and beyond to demonstrate solidarity.

Adnane, who is pre-med and sub-matriculated into the Perelman School of Medicine’s master of public health program, has a habit of looking for ways to bring the greatest good to the greatest number. A biology major in the School of Arts & Science, he’s long been interested in science and medicine, inspired in particular by his grandfather’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease. He has intentionally immersed himself in learning about public health as part of his goal to practice medicine beyond one-on-one work with patients on a broader scale, working with policymakers or non-governmental organizations to provide guidance and solutions to help whole populations cope with the burden of disease.

He took the same broad-based perspective with his fundraising project, drawing from personal experience with Islamophobia to help others.

“I grew up in Northeast Philly where there is a multi-ethnic, diverse population,” he says, “so, although I definitely saw Islamophobic, racist viewpoints or actions or glares, thankfully, it wasn’t even close to what I’ve heard from other Muslim friends I have on campus who grew up in other areas where people may have never met a Muslim in their lives.”

Coming to Penn, Adnane embraced many different groups of friends, on the speech and debate team, the Penn Barbell club, the MedX program and elsewhere. Yet not all were aware of his experiences as a Muslim, or, indeed, even that he was Muslim. And, though he’s made community service a focal point of his time on campus, volunteering at CHOP, on a service trip to Guatemala to support health-care workers and with youth in West Philadelphia, he saw the confluence of Eid and the 9/11 anniversary as an opportunity to commit his time toward addressing an issue that hit closer to home.

Without any previous experience in fundraising, he did research on charities and selected Tuesday’s Children, a non-profit organization that provides support for youths and families affected by 9/11 and other traumatic losses, as the beneficiary of his efforts. He set up a GoFundMe account and began reaching out to everyone he could think of, also seeking assistance from University Chaplain Charles Howard, who helped him make connections around the city and in some cases reached out to religious leaders himself.

“I sent hundreds of emails,” says Adnane. “To imams, mosques, here at Penn and around Philadelphia. I messaged all my friends on Facebook and had a few friends message all of their friends letting them know about the campaign.”

Adnane was heartened by the response he received to his call for help.

“I was hearing from people I’d only talked to once or twice who were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is such a great idea,’” he says.

The donations quickly came in from Adnane’s friends, family, Muslims in the community and even anonymous donors. Online and offline, the effort has raised more than $2,000, online and off, for Tuesday’s Children.

“I want people to understand that this is not Muslims taking responsibility for what happened on 9/11,” Adnane says. “This is an act of love from the Muslim community and its friends to show that we understand that this happened at this time and we are saddened, just like you are. We are here to help you and work with you so we can all have a better future.”