#BecomeaSuperhero: Fellow Provides Internet Access to Rural Communities Worldwide

With a network of around 775+ Fellows from 96 countries specializing in a diverse array of professional fields, many Atlas Corps Alumni and current Fellows are making inspiring progress with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is time to celebrate the achievements of our amazing network and share advice on how we can all do our part to protect and support each other.

Today we want to talk with our Fellow Wissal Khadrouf (Class 36, Morocco) who is working on projects to extend internet access to rural communities worldwide through her Host Organization Microsoft’s Airband Initiative. According to the UN agency International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in a world where internet access is becoming more and more essential to daily life, billions of people, around 49% of all population do not have access to the Internet.

Thank you Wissal for everything that you do to bring more communities into the digital ecosystem, thereby creating opportunities for people to get access to digital skills, telehealth, and other economic opportunities. We wish you all the best with this impactful work! 

Name: Wissal Khadrouf Home Country: Morocco Host Organization: Microsoft Role at Host Organization: Program Management Fellow Social Issues that you have worked with: Quality education; Decent work and economic growth; Industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

Tell us about your current projects?

At my Host Organization, my role is to support the Senior Program Manager on the Airband team to improve the consistency, quality, and efficiency of the team’s project management tools and processes. The Airband Initiative aims to extend affordable broadband access to rural communities and help close the digital divide, particularly in the areas of agriculture, education, healthcare, and small-business enablement.

During my fellowship, I coordinated and organized a summit for 120+ Airband partners, and created a business process playbook for the Airband team to record, maintain, and improve processes. I worked on data analysis and visualization using Power BI, and improved the reporting processes.

Why is it important for you to work with that social issue?

I am someone who seeks a sense of purpose to improve the human condition and make people’s lives better. I know that there is more to life than making money and stable living, so working on a project with an impact of changing people’s lives by giving them internet access and empowering them to do more and be better is what makes me wake up every day excited and happy to go to work.

How has Atlas Corps contributed to your professional/ personal accomplishments?

I made one of the best and bravest decisions of my life to leave my stable and very well established life in Morocco and apply to the Atlas Corps Fellowship. From that moment everything was amazing!

Atlas Corps gave me the chance to make the first step to transition from IT work to something more impactful, which I had been dreaming of for a while. My Fellowship also allowed me to meet a group of like-minded incredible leaders from around the world, and I got to do amazing work helping to change people’s lives.

#BecomeaSuperhero! Support Future Global Change Leaders.

Atlas Corps Fellows continue to serve in the U.S. and remote, and we reaffirm our commitment to building a network of global leaders, even- and especially- in these times. We need your help to overcome the operational challenges that Atlas Corps faces so we can continue our critical work of training the social change leaders that this world urgently needs. As a special initiative of Bonus Day on July 15th, donations of $100+ will be matched! Will you support our Fellows?