Arab Americans

Arab Americans on the Move

Arab American Youth On the Move June 2009

Posted on Wednesday June 17, 2009

The Arab American Institute and the Arab American Institute Foundation manage a number of programs aimed at recognizing, rewarding and further developing the leadership skills of exceptional young Arab Americans. This edition of Arab Americans on the move will focus on young Arab Americans who have demonstrated excellence in academics,service to their communities and leadership among their peers.

The keystone of our youth programs is our summer internship program which places students from around the county in substantive internships both at the Institute’s headquarters as well at various government agencies, advocacy organizations and non-profits. This year we were fortunate to have had a very high number of qualified applicants of which we chose a group of extraordinarily talented individuals.


One of these individuals is Hammad Hammad, a Palestinian-American immigrant from Livermore, California. Hammad graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in May 2008. Following graduation, he co-founded the NGO, Inspire Dreams, and created “Camp I Have a Dream”, a summer camp for refugee youth in the Dheisheh, Jalazon, and al-Azzeh refugee camps in the West Bank. In addition, Hammad is a Fulbright Scholar who has recently completed his studies in the Netherlands, comparing European and American approaches to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Hammad’s summer internship placement is with the White House Office of Public Engagement. This highly selective internship program is a testament to the success that Hammad has had in his endeavors, both academically and professionally, up to this point. Hammad was also the recipient of the 2009 Raymond Jallow Award for Public Service, an award given by the Arab American Institute Foundation in recognition of a demonstrated commitment to public service.

Joining Hammad as AAI interns placed at external organizations are the following three highly qualified students: Tonia Berry, a junior at the University of Michigan, working toward a bachelor‘s degree in Economics and Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish, and Islamic Studies, is interning with the Community Relations Service division of the U.S. Department of Justice; Mohamed Alloush, a graduate student at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute, has been placed with the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch; and As’ad Bahbah, a senior at The University of Arizona working towards a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, is working with the Congressional Office of Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA).

In addition to our external interns, we have five exceptional interns working in various departments of our DC office: Tareq Kayali, a graduate from Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, has been asked to continue his spring internship and will be working as our Government Relations intern; Edward Gaier, a graduate student in Political Science at George Mason University, has been selected as AAI President Dr. James Zogby’s research assistant; Nadia Aziz, a recent graduate from Clemson University, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Global Politics and is working as our Communications Intern Rami Ayyub, a sophomore studying Business and Music at The University of Maryland, has been placed with our Community Relations Department; and Lamine Hamdad, a senior majoring in Information Systems at George Washington University, is returning to the AAI staff to help with web-design.

Another central component of our youth development efforts are the Foundation’s youth awards. Each year the Foundation receives a high number of applications for our Helen Abbott Community Service and Raymond Jallow Public Service Awards. This year we received a particularly well qualified field of applicants, of which many were deserving of praise. Our judges were especially impressed by the strong applications received from high school students from around the country.


This year, the Helen Abbott Community Service Awards selection committee was honored to provide the following students with grants in recognition of their service:
Alaa Itani, a recent graduate from Portage Central High School and the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center. Throughout high school, community service played an integral role in her education. Whether through the National Honor Society or at the Portage Community Center, volunteering has allowed her to serve the community and learn about its people; Sarah Jaward, currently a senior studying pre-law at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Sarah is an activist, promoting civic engagement at the grassroots level, and she volunteers in a variety of humanitarian efforts, as well; Banafsheh Sharif-Askary, a recent graduate who plans to attend Duke University in North Carolina in the fall of 2009 to study pre-med, with an eye towards becoming a plastic surgeon. Her ultimate goal is to become a physician with Doctors Without Borders, the international humanitarian organization committed to providing medical aid in countries with severely limited access to effective health care; and Joseph Wahhab, a high school senior and Honor Roll student who also finds time to work as a shift manager at Dairy Queen. In that capacity he organized and ran a charity event that benefited terminally ill children of his community with the support of his employer. This event, established as an annual charity fund at his local Dairy Queen in 2006, donates to Children’s Hospital to help leukemia patients.

(Below from left to right: Alaa Itani, Sarah Jaward, Banafsheh Sharif-Askary & Joseph Wahhab)


Each year the League of Arab States invites the Arab American Institute to nominate two young Arab Americans to participate in a trip to an Arab country. The Arab League Trip takes Arab American youth to one country in the Arab world each year, along with other youth of Arab decent from Europe and South America. This year’s trip to Morocco is in July and Amira Rose Alkhatib and Zaki Barzinji are AAI’s two participants. Amira is a graduating high school senior in New York who will be attending Albany State University in the fall. Zaki is a rising junior at Virginia Tech who is studying Political Science and English.

The Arab American Institute and Arab American Institute Foundation are hopeful that, through our efforts, we are able to inspire young Arab Americans to take on more proactive roles in their communities.