Qatar Foundation International Brings Students from Three Continents Together For Community Service and Leadership Projects
WASHINGTON, March 7th, 2012: Qatar Foundation International (QFI) has selected 37 students from three continents to attend the YALLAH: Commit to Action trip in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sixty applications were submitted, but the students with the best community service and engagement project proposals were selected.
The students, all alumni of QFI-programs, from Qatar, Brazil and multiple cities in the United States came up with their own service project topics which included establishing a stop smoking campaign; forming a feminist literary magazine to inspire young women around the globe to be the change they would like to see; and creating a group in Sao Paulo to spread more knowledge about the Arab culture in the Brazilian community.
YALLAH is a student-focused online forum for the alumni of QFI’s programs, which intends to build a youth-led community of global citizens – males and females, Arabs and non-Arabs -- who are able to navigate national differences, dispense with stereotypes, and build stronger relations with their peers.
QFI, in partnership with National Youth Leadership Council, is organizing the weeklong trip, from April 18th until April 27th, 2012, to allow students to participate in The National Service-Learning and the Youthrive Peacejam Leadership Conference. The conference is considered the largest gatherings of youth and adults involved in the service-learning movement since its establishment in 1989 in Minnesota. The conference has always been an attraction for students from all around the globe and annually nearly 2,200 attendees join the conference to develop their leadership skills and learn how to successfully implement their project service ideas in their communities.
Michael VanKeulen, the Director of Outreach at The National Youth Leadership Council, in collaboration with QFI, has planned a unique educational program for the students “to participate in an inspiring, challenging, and life-changing event.”
During the conference, students will be engaged and will participate in issues impacting academic achievement and student leadership. Also, the conference will feature many on-site and off-site opportunities to serve the local community.
In addition, the event will give the participants the opportunity to reunite with their friends with whom they met before and meet new friends from the YALLAH community and around the globe.
Maggie Mitchell Salem, Executive Director of Qatar Foundation International, said: “QFI was very impressed with the service projects proposed by our alumni – from serving their local community, such as Naiana Padial from Brazil who hopes to provide better access to Arabic, African and Latin American literature to Brazilian young people – to global issues, such as Dana Al-Sharif from Qatar who hopes to spread awareness about water conservation in her county and beyond. We are very excited to support our students as they begin to implement their service project ideas.”
To learn more about QFI, please visit www.qfi.org. For media inquiries, please contact Lauren McCollough: lmccollough@qfi.org, +1 202.255.3575.
