Class 40

Salma Necib has three years of experience in the nonprofit and corporate sectors, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Higher Institute of Management in Tunis (ISG). While working as a Product Owner with Keyrus for Orange Telecommunication client in Tunisia under Digital & Customer Experience Business Unit, she helped create a new digital revenue stream through the development and implementation of an e-commerce and content management solution in two pilot countries. Salma has also worked as a Project Manager of Selfcare Omniflow, which was the first proprietary software of Keyrus. Previously, Salma volunteered with AIESEC and was responsible for developing partnerships between AIESEC entities and promoting cultural exchange awareness. She has also been selected several times to represent her country’s exchange programs and volunteering opportunities in many countries including Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Morocco. Through these varied experiences, she has developed strong skills in leadership, public speaking, innovation management, product strategy consulting, customer experience, youth empowerment, and social entrepreneurship. Salma enjoys designing human-centered solutions, especially for emerging industries, including circular economy and sustainable mobility.

Host Organization: Village Capital

Role at Host Organization: At Village Capital, Salma will serve as the Startup Ecosystem Fellow: supporting Village Capital’s relationship with the IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator with an aim of creating fans and advocates of IBM’s technology and approach with the fintech, health tech, insurtech, and regtech startup communities.

Motassem Awaja is a qualified software engineer. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Al Azhar University of Gaza and holds a Master’s degree in Information Technology from the Islamic University of Gaza, for which he authored a thesis on Semantic Web and Ontology. He is a high-caliber expert, knowledgeable problem solver, and efficient developer experienced in the .NET framework. Moatassem is proud of his 3 years of condensed experience working in software engineering and programming roles with international and local organizations and companies in his home country, Palestine. From 2015 to 2018 he worked for UNRWA’s Gaza Field Office and its international technical partner, GGateway, on different programming systems. He gained valuable insights from his work across a range of systems that were designed to serve vulnerable populations in the regions, such as marginalized families, struggling school children, and war-affected communities. Motassem boasts an excellent track record of top-notch project management and delivery of results. Notably, he worked on projects related to qualification, programming, development of web/win Apps, and knowledge engineering endeavors using the semantic web and ontology technologies. People find Motassem as to be an outgoing and upbeat individual who comes across as driven, self-motivated, and eager to learn. He possesses excellent communication skills and is always seeking opportunities for personal and career growth with like-minded people.

Host Organization: boodleAI

Role at Host Organization: At boodleAI, Motassem will serve as the Web Front-End Engineer Fellow: implementing the web-based UI of boodleAI’s predictive analytics SaaS platform.

Isabella Veronica Silalahi is a communications practitioner in international development with three years of experience working in partnerships and strategic communications in several United Nations agencies in Washington, D.C. and Indonesia, namely UNDP and UNOPS. Her most recent work experience is serving as the Communications & Learning Officer for USAID-ASEAN Policy Implementation, where she managed the dissemination of all communications between the United States and ASEAN. Previously, she served as a Communications & Partnerships Analyst in the United Nations Liaison Office in Washington, D.C. (UNOPS), managing and creating content for activities. At 21 years old, she graduated with her Master of International Affairs (M.A) from the George Washington University, concentrating in International Law & Organization. She is the Regional Leader for Girl Up Indonesia (part of the United Nations Foundation), an organization helping adolescent girls become future leaders. Girl Up Indonesia is currently building more than 12 clubs across Indonesia. Additionally, she also served on the Youth Advisory Panel in UNFPA. Isabella enjoys focusing on the topics of gender equality, sexuality, and youth development.

Host Organization: Atlas Corps

Role at Host Organization: At Atlas Corps, Isabella will serve as the American Express Leadership Fellow: supporting the overall strengthening of leadership development in the nonprofit sector by helping to expand the American Express Leadership Academy franchise.

Awais Farooq is a marketing professional with an avid belief in the power of love and empathy to connect with people. Awais has 4 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. After he earned his MBA, he worked at a Stanford-funded education and leadership startup called Amal Academy, helping fresh graduates be the best versions of themselves through soft skill development and self-discovery. Awais is passionate about and skilled in a wide range of areas, including outreach and marketing, tech management, professional development, curriculum design, program management, and counseling. He cares about working for a cause bigger than himself. Other than Amal Academy, Awais has taken part in Seth Godin’s Marketing Seminar and the altMBA programs to develop better empathy for his team and his approach to work. These experiences have helped him appreciate the exposure that humans can provide each other and have inspired him to become an Atlas Corps Fellow. He enjoys working in education, youth empowerment, and social awareness and has an overwhelming passion for social inclusion. Awais loves humans and hopes to connect with some amazing humans through his Atlas Corps fellowship.

Host Organization: American Red Cross

Role at Host Organization: At the American Red Cross, Awais will serve as the International Response Knowledge Management & Learning Fellow: supporting the Knowledge Management and Learning efforts for response operations and readiness activities to facilitate access to, utilization of, and learning from existing data, evidence, and knowledge generated from past operations both within the American Red Cross and with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Partners.

Anil Chaudhary is a development enthusiast with a specialization in Development Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL). Originally from Nepal, Anil has nearly a decade of experience in the areas of MERL and has excellent expertise in designing the M&E plan and framework for the diverse and complex nature of development projects. He has led or co-led several surveys and evaluations in a wide range of interventions such as public health, agriculture, and livelihood, education, and humanitarian response. He is equipped with excellent quantitative and qualitative research skills. With sound technical skills for designing the M&E system at the program and organization level and developing robust data collection tools for monitoring purposes, he has worked in numbers of international organizations in the past including bilateral multilateral (UN) and INGOs. He has also provided consulting services for numbers of INGOs and NGOs working in different geographical areas of Nepal. Be it writing progress reports for the project or organization or writing impact stories, he has sound writing skills. His other capacities include designing project and program evaluations, developing questionnaires, and collecting data using web-based applications. An excellent communicator with stakeholders and partners, he has sound workshop and training facilitation skills. With recent engagement in academia, he is passionate about social research, particularly in the areas of humanitarian relief, social protection, economic development, and public health. After the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, he worked in different disaster response interventions. Furthermore, he is capable of being able to generate quality data and evidence from the field in harsh situations. Besides, Anil is a passionate traveler, photographer, interactor, and cultural explorer.

Host Organization: American Red Cross

Role at Host Organization: At the American Red Cross, Anil will serve as the QDL Research & Analysis Fellow: supporting research, analysis, and learning efforts for International Services Department Strategy 2023.

Samar Baba has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector and almost two years of professional experience in a multinational company. Samar holds an Engineering degree in Applied Mathematics and Modelling from the High National Engineering School of Tunis (ENSIT). While working as a Developer Advocate in the Company’s IT department, she used to represent and advocate for the tools, components, and guidelines designed by the architecture department before the Delivery Teams. She designed and conducted workshops, trainings, and tutorials for developers. Also, she was the product owner of the IT Department’s internal framework. Samar was also a volunteer committee member of the humanitarian activities department of IEEE, an organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Her role consisted of mentoring and reviewing the reports of the funded projects around the world. While working as a youth adviser within a consultancy focused on creating innovative ideas and social impact opportunities, she was in charge of a team of 25 youth for a Microsoft project preparing for the next generation workforce. Samar has volunteered for 6 years within IEEE. She used to lead an initiative called TAWASOL, funded by the organization, for two years. The project aimed to initiate social change in Tunisia through technology using a platform developed by the team. Through these experiences, she developed strong communication, project coordination, and implementation skills. Also, she acquired the ability to make decisions and solve problems. Samar enjoys focusing on the topics of entrepreneurship and education and has a strong passion for youth empowerment.

Host Organization: IBM

Role at Host Organization: At IBM, Samar will serve as the DevZ Experience Fellow – Z Student Hub: supporting youth engagement in preparing for the future of work through digital skill-building, professional development training, and building entrepreneurial spirit with youth around the world who have not been exposed to computer science or are new to IBM Z technology.

Soufiene Chahbani has four years of experience in the nonprofit sector and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering from the University of El Manar in Tunisia. He is currently preparing for his Master’s degree in IoT. Soufiene served as a Project Manager at Wasabi, a communications company dedicated to creating platforms for open expression. As a member of Wasabi, he helped in establishing a reliable entrepreneurship ecosystem through Afkar Incubator, the first idea stage incubator in Tunisia. He was also responsible for the logistics of the incubator, which includes event planning and communications support production. Moreover, Soufiene established the incubator’s sourcing and recruitment process and helped with monitoring and evaluating entrepreneurs. Previously, Soufiene was the Project Manager of ‘3alli Soutek’, Arabic for “raise your voice”, a civic engagement project that aims to empower young Tunisians to be active in civic life for the betterment of their communities. Soufiene worked on TEDxCarthage as a Volunteer Coordinator and as a Post-Production Manager. Soufiene is also the organizer of TEDxDjerba, the first TEDx in the south of Tunisia, where he was able to contribute to inspiring the Tunisian youth. Back in 2014, Soufiene served as a volunteer in the Media Center of the Independent High Authority for Elections and ensured the media center ran smoothly. Through these experiences, he developed strong project management, communications, and capacity building skills. Soufiene enjoys focusing on the topics of entrepreneurship and media and has a passion for youth development and civic engagement.

Host Organization: IBM

Role at Host Organization: At IBM, Soufiene will serve as the DevZ Experience Fellow – Z + VS Code: supporting youth engagement in preparing for the future of work through digital skill-building, professional development training, and building entrepreneurial spirit with youth around the world who have not been exposed to computer science or are new to IBM Z technology.

Ahmed Fadl is a social entrepreneur from Egypt; he has six years of experience with national and international NGOs in Egypt (Life Makers Foundation, Rotaract, Save the Children, Refuge Egypt, etc.). He has been working on economic development and inclusion programs, serving Refugees, migrants, and Egyptians from vulnerable communities. Ahmed also worked on youth development programs targeting students in different Egyptian universities. He founded iLearn, an educational initiative that aims to raise awareness about online education. In 2016, Ahmed cofounded a FinTech startup, ElGameya, a digital peer-to-peer lending solution through mobile application; he was responsible for the business and financial units at the startup. ElGameya has successfully managed to join four of the biggest startup incubation/acceleration programs in the country. Ahmed interned at Village Capital (a DC-based organization supporting impact driven startups) as part of the Professional Fellows program. Ahmed holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Port Said University; in addition, he has completed extensive online studies in the fields of project management, data analysis and visualization, finance, and development studies. He is interested in music, astronomy, sports, and philosophy.

Host Organization: Village Capital

Role at Host Organization: At Village Capital, Ahmed will serve as the Startup Ecosystem Fellow: supporting Village Capital’s relationship with the IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator with an aim of creating fans and advocates of IBM’s technology and approach with the fintech, health tech, insurtech, and regtech startup communities.