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When Riya Rahman fasts each year while observing Ramadan, she is reminded why she works for her passion.

The Baylor University senior who has worked to end hunger was honored at the White House on Friday. She was one of nine people from across the country selected as White House Champions of Change for Summer Opportunity.

The children she helped feed through Baylor’s Texas Hunger Initiative gave her perspective as she fasted from sunup to sundown.

“Every day they would come out, and I felt like I was dying,” Rahman said. “But what about the kids who have to travel a distance to the site, who eat food outside in ridiculously dry heat?”

A political science major, Rahman became interested in child hunger after going to Washington, D.C., two summers ago and learning what the government and nonprofit organizations do to fight it.

On her trip this weekend, she met with officials including Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. She also participated in an afternoon workshop with mayors from around the country.

However, her previous trip to the nation’s capital made a larger difference in her desire to fight hunger.