Major: Honors Program for Arabic Studies
This past year, I was fortunate enough to extend my internship at International Relief in Development (IRD) in Amman, Jordan due to the Wallenberg Summer Service Award. As part of my winter abroad semester studying in Amman, I interned with IRD and served on the “Cultivating Inclusive & Supportive Learning Environments” (CISLE) project. The CISLE project, a USAID funded project that partnered with Queen Rania Teacher Academy, aimed to strengthen the overall school community and school-community relationship through bi-weekly trainings in Arabic on fundraising, income-generation projects, parent engagement, events and community service. As a participant in the trainings, I witnessed the power created when community members join in solidarity to be part of the solution.
Thanks to the Wallenberg award, I stayed in Amman past the end of my academic semester and worked with CISLE to build community through an e-magazine implemented in twenty different Jordan government schools. The e-magazine was used as a tool by the school committee (made up of representatives from the community, faculty and student body) to showcase inclusive events or school-wide projects. In addition, it served as a space for all students to participate in an extra-curricular where they could also share personal writing or academic work.