Elsa Schroeder serves as Rabata’s Educational Initiatives Officer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Beloit College and a Master of Arts in Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures with a specialty in Cultural Anthropology and Javanese Dance from Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. In 2019, Elsa was awarded the Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Abroad (YES Abroad) Program by the State Department and lived in Indonesia for one year. She would later return in 2023 to conduct research on Royal Court Dance in the Palace of Yogyakarta.
A St. Paul native, Elsa has had the privilege to live in Indonesia, Spain, and Germany. She loves learning languages and has studied Latin, Indonesian, Arabic, Japanese, German, Javanese, and Somali. Her excitement and eagerness to connect with others is something she brings to every meja, mensa, tisch, and table she sits at.
When it comes to nonprofit work, Elsa seeks opportunities to utilize her skills and learn from the other Anisaat, through which she is able to serve the Muslim community. Keeping this goal close to heart, she passionately brings her anthropological perspective to the table and faithfully attends the Sunday Halaqa to increase her Islamic knowledge.
In her spare moments, outside of her time spent at Rabata, Elsa can be found lost in a long historical fiction book, sewing yet another new dress, or curled up in a cozy spot with her cat, Serafina.