“There’s so many different groups on campus and the only thing that’s lacking is a bridge to connect them,” Zeidan said.

As an Arab-American, Zeidan wanted to connect with students of other backgrounds.

Zeidan found inspiration in her friend Rima Fadlallah, a University of Michigan student. Fadlallah began an opinion section called “Michigan in Color” in the Michigan Daily.

Zeidan said this pushed her to open a new community that was open to conversations on race and discrimination to MSU.

“I wanted to replicate that on our campus,” Zeidan said.

She also is an intern for Destination Detroit, an organization that seeks to create connections between student groups with a focus on service in Detroit. Zeidan used her resources within the group to lay the groundwork for the blog.

Sam Appel, a coordinator for Destination Detroit, helps Zeidan manage the website and spread it to other student groups.

“She had this concept of trying to engage the community,” Appel said.

But, rather than engaging it with service like Destination Detroit does, Zeidan proposed engagement with conversation.

“My most cultivating experiences are ones (that come) from learning from people different from me,” Zeidan said.

In the blog’s beginning, it was meant only for students of color, however, it has expanded to include anyone with a story to tell.

Social relations and policy senior Jazmyn Thomas was one of the first students to contribute her story.

Her post discusses the struggle of biracial children when finding their identities, Thomas said.

Thomas is a biracial individual and her parents embraced both cultures, but unfortunately not all parents do, she said.

Thomas sees Building Bridges as an open space to speak comfortably.

“At a school as large as MSU, there might not be a space for ?people of color to have as much of a voice as other students,” she said.

Visit the blog at buildingbridgesblogspot.wordpress.com.