Class 30

Yousra has more than five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Bachelor’s of Accounting from Al Azhar University, Gaza. Upon graduation, she started working at the Youth Empowerment Center (YEC), a local nonprofit that works with international organizations. She worked to develop marginalized communities and empower youth to promote positive change in the society. As a Finance and Administration Manager, Yousra has worked with different international organizations like Oxfam, HelpAge International, and Caritas. Yousra also led strategic efforts and oversaw key operational functions including financial planning, accounts payable, budgeting, payroll, procurement, financial services, treasury, and monitoring the projects and the programs. Yousra has gained hands-on experience in financial management, project management, strategic planning, and capacity building. Yousra believes in the role nonprofits play in addressing the social needs, and she is passionate about the finance and strategic planning in the nonprofit sector.

Host Organization: Enveritas

Role at Host Organization: Yousra will be responsible for ensuring the financial soundness of a social entrepreneurship startup that has been growing rapidly. Reporting directly to the Head of Finance, she will be responsible for bookkeeping, non-profit accounting, contracts and expense management, and accounting systems management.

Pheonah is a journalist with over seven years experience in media development programs. She earned a bachelor’s degree of Arts in Languages with a major in Communication from Uganda Christian University. As the Program Assistant for Center for Media Literacy and Community Development (CEMCOD), Pheonah is a key player in the implementation of the Community Media Project in Uganda, a project that amplifies youth voices in the development agenda of their communities. Working directly with young people she mentors, monitors and trains them in community media strategies. In February 2018, she led a team of selected Community Reporters to a three month exchange program to Zimbabwe, where she oversaw reporters as they shared community initiative practices. Pheonah recently worked on a project that documented the life stories of girls who dropped out of school due to pregnancy, advocating for the retainment and reeducation of these teen mothers. In 2016, she participated in the US Department of State funded Community Solutions Fellowship program, where she demonstrated outstanding leadership in the field of transparency and accountability, earning a Learning Solutions Award from George Mason University. While at her host organization Voice of America (VOA) in Washington, she coordinated the Social Media department for the Swahili division, where she helped to improve two News programs (KwaUndani, VOA Express), to appeal to the younger social media consumers.

Host Organization: Voice of America

Role at Host Organization: Pheonah will conduct research and embark upon independent news reporting assignments. This will include script writing, video editing, and multimedia report and programming

Nilima has five years of experience in the non-profit sector, earned a Masters Degree in Inter Asia NGO Studies from Sungkonghoe University in South Korea. While working as a Youth Manager with Marie Stopes International Nepal, she helped increasing the access of rural and urban young people of Nepal to sexual reproductive health information and services. Previously, Nilima worked with a youth-based local NGO to build peaceful and democratic Nepal. Nilima has volunteered as a UNESCO Cultural Exchange Volunteer, One Young World Nepal Ambassador and served Rotaract as president of a local Rotaract Club. Through these experiences, she developed strong leadership, coordination skills and working in diverse culture. Nilima enjoys working with young people to empower them and has a strong passion for youth development and women empowerment.

Host Organization: Making Cents International

Role at Host Organization: Nilima will support the YouthPower.org learning hub and YouthPower Learning webinar series, which provides a learning platform that strengthens the positive youth development field across all sectors (Health, Education, Economics, etc). Additionally, she will participate in the planning of the annual YP meeting and contribute to social media outreach.

Communication Specialist with more than ten years of work experience, five in the governmental sector and non-profit. Her job is to support innovative projects and knowledge sharing activities about the effective and appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in different contexts to strengthen learning and knowledge management processes that ensure organizations to achieve their objectives; It includes, strategies development; teacher training and support; capacity building; educational content; distance learning; digital literacy and skills development; and research and development (R&D) activities.

She has developed strong experience in knowledge management, innovation, and organizational learning. While working as an ICT advisor in the Colombian Education Ministry, she supported the implementation of strategies to strengthen institutional knowledge management while also building the Corporate School, formulating strategies to promote the use of ICT tools to the Knowledge Management System.

Professionally, her skills also include building communication strategies and graphic design for social change. Developing and leading these communication strategies, she has worked with local and international organizations that address social issues such as education, poverty, and violence against women.

Laura has actively participated in leadership programs, as well as in international volunteer opportunities leading several projects. While volunteering in Chile with America Solidaria Foundation, she headed the project “Voices that create opportunities”, working with women in a situation of social vulnerability doing workshops and training them in communications and marketing, with the purpose to help them to get access to better jobs.

Laura has developed a strong sense of ownership, motivation, creativity, talent, and passion to create a positive social impact to be keen to drive ethical social change anywhere in the world.

Social issues: Communication for social change; Social Enterprise / Entrepreneurship; Empowerment of women; Social impact Storytelling; Education through technology.

Host Organization: Atlas Corps

Role at Host Organization: Laura will manage the Atlas Corps social media strategy and enhance the “storytelling” component of external events to better showcase the achievements of Fellows and Host Organizations. She will also help to expand the Atlas Corps external presence as included in our communications and public relations strategy.

Huma has over six years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector, having worked to fight against poverty, hunger and illiteracy in her country. She earned her last degree in Business Administration from the Institute of Management Sciences. Huma has worked as an Assistant Project Coordinator for a UNWFP funded project which provided food assistance to the FATA region of her country. Previously, she worked for a UNODC funded project that helped provide health assistance to drug users in the province’s female prisons. Through her professional career, Huma acquired highly praised leadership, humanitarian-based research and communication skills. Huma also has an unbeatable command over her technical and report preparation skills. Easily commanding cameras and laptops, Huma’s dream is to improve the quality of education in Pakistan by providing employment opportunities to the youth and empowering Pakistani women.

Host Organization: Halcyon

Role in Host Organization: Huma will work alongside the Director to help manage projects including the Halcyon Dialogue, Incubator Intensive and Halcyon’s scoping for international expansion of its social enterprise incubator. She will lead on several components of these programs, maintaining connections with external partners, and representing Halcyon in various scenarios.

Ha has almost five years of working experience in the nonprofit sector. She earned a Bachelor’s degree (with honors) in English Language Education from Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Ha is currently working as a Program Manager at Student Exchange Vietnam, whose mission is to promote internationalization of Vietnam’s higher education via academic and professional exchange programs. Her work has focused on annual business planning, forming partnerships, and leading a team of five to develop and implement internship and study programs in Vietnam for international students. Ha has helped nearly 100 local Vietnamese universities and organizations of diverse industries to host over 200 students from 20 different countries. Previously, Ha served as an event organizer for the U.S Embassy in Vietnam’s Conference on boosting the number of U.S students studying abroad in Vietnam. Ha has volunteered as an English Instructor for the Department of Education and Training in Thanh Hoa and at VNU where she trained English to 150 board members of public schools within the province of Thanh Hoa and to a wide range of VNU’s non-English major students. Through these experiences she has developed strong intercultural communication, organizational management, facilitation, and project planning and implementation skills. Ha is passionate about promoting global understanding and cultural diversity, thus wishes to continue her career in the field of international education.

Host Organization: Buffett Institute of Global Studies

Role at Host Organization: Ha will manage specific undergraduate initiatives across the global engagement programming, including the undergraduate Fellows and Ambassadors programs, project and research grant opportunities, and curriculum for a coalition of student group leaders.

Asim has nine years of experience in research, big data analytics, program design, and monitoring and evaluation of diverse community development projects that focus on women entrepreneurship and health interventions. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology in Pakistan and pursued his P.hD. from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He recently worked in the capacity of research and evaluation for Entrepreneurship Beyond Boundaries project where he developed standard operating procedures and evaluated the pilot intervention in Malaysia. Previously, Asim has worked with Marie Stopes International for UKAID funded project and managed the Franchise Live Application for Monitoring and Evaluation, conducting Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation Research. Additionally, Asim has monitored the 18-months quasi-experimental research study to empower the women in rural settings as part of the behavior change communication strategy, and small-scale community action research projects using the comic power, photovoice and participatory reflection and analysis tools. Asim has a keen interest in working with the development sector organizations on entrepreneurial ecosystem development and system improvement via big data analytics to help marginalized communities.

Host Organization: PYXERA Global

Role at Host Organization: Working directly with senior staff conducting research and providing analysis on existing client engagements, Asim while helping to create processes and improvements to S.I.s operations and services. He will also conduct landscape assessments for existing client deliverables while building a consistent platform to ensure quality and efficiency.