Fellows

Nino has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Management from the International University of Tunis. After founding two social businesses, Nino became a social entrepreneurship specialist and has developed a curriculum for a MEPI funded job development project. The project will teach practical skills to young unemployed people on starting and running their own businesses. He also serves as manager of EL SPACE, a community shared workspace that he co-founded. EL SPACE provides interdisciplinary workshops for local business people and affordable office space for social entrepreneurs. While working on these initiatives, Nino developed project management skills: conception, research, design, planning, execution, quality control, and report writing. He is the volunteer head of an ongoing organization, Tunisian Association for Nature and Sustainable Development (ANDD), which educates people through public workshops and debates on climate change. This work followed his volunteer work with EVASIONS, an outdoor activity association which he co-founded, that encouraged good bodily health and exploration of Tunisia. Through EVASIONS, he learned how to manage large groups of people and organize events. He also managed the budget for EVASIONS and ANDD. Nino is determined to improve the community by developing social entrepreneurship thus encouraging economic development for young people.

Host: PYXERA Global

Fellow Role at Host Organization: Nino will assist in improving local partner and participant training/tools for the SAP program that has a focus on assisting entrepreneurs. He will also help with Ares client management, social media/communications, project development, and impact measurement.

Arwa has five years of experience in the energy industry and two years of experience in the nonprofit sector – specifically in women’s empowerment, gender equity and inclusion of women in the technology and engineering sectors. Arwa earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with focus on Electrical and Control systems from the National School of Engineers in Sfax, Tunisia. As an electrical and instrumentation specialist engineer Arwa worked in design and technical consultancy with oil and gas operating companies in Tunisia. She is responsible for carrying out conceptual engineering design, preparing technical engineering documents, budget estimation, testing and commissioning procedures, feasibility studies, and risk assessment reports.Arwa is a fellow of the Techwomen Program, an immersive leadership program administered by the U.S. State Department and the Institute of International Education tailored for emerging female leaders in STEM fields. Through the Techwomen program Arwa learned about day to day operations in Silicon Valley and visited the world’s top companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Symantec, and Autodesk. In 2015, Arwa was selected as a visiting engineer for an internship in SolarCity San Francisco America’s largest solar provider, during her internship Arwa worked with the Grid Engineering department on identifying solutions for energy integration problems. Arwa is also a fellow of the SHE ENTREPRENEURS, a recognized leadership program administered by the Swedish Institute in Sweden for female social entrepreneurs in the MENA region. Arwa is the co-founder and Communications and Social Media Manager of Women Leaders in Technology “WoLTech”, a Tunisian nonprofit promoting and empowering women in the tech field. She is passionate about renewable energies and sustainability, women empowerment and global citizenship.

Host Organization: CleanChoice Energy

Role at Host Organization: Arwa will work to help develop new consumer options to offer customers new opportunities to make clean choices. She will work on product development for new renewable energy, community solar, and smart home choices.

Efe has seven years of professional experience and almost ten years of volunteer experience in civil society. After finalizing his AFS year in Wisconsin in 2004, he started as a volunteer in community based activities in Istanbul, Turkey. As a graduate of Psychology, Bilkent University in 2010, he took civil society field as a profession and worked both in the field and in providing operational support with UN-FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations), AFS (American Field Service) Turkey, Violence Stories in Turkey with CRA (Cross Cultural Research Association), LGBT and Human Rights with SPoD (Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association) and KAOS GL, and Refugee and Asylum Seekers Rights with MdM (Medecins du Monde). As his primary interest in Human and LGBTQ Rights, he has prioritized a gender-based advocacy in the institutions and projects he has worked for. In 2015, he founded Harup, a project space that combines LGBTQ advocacy and arts as a medium. He has worked with several national and international media platforms where his writings and interviews were published. His intention is to be able to combine his passion for arts and culture and human and LGBTQ rights in order to work closely with different advocacy methods while keeping ties with local and global community.

Host Organization: Human Rights Campaign

Fellow Role at Host Organization: Efe will be a member of the HRC’s Global Office assisting with assignments to support programs in HRC Global and the HRC Foundation.

Ingrid has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Joint Master’s of Arts in Public Policy from the Central European University in Hungary and University of York in United Kingdom. Just recently she worked as a Program Development and Quality Manager for Junior Achievement in Albania, where she was responsible for development and evaluation of programs in the organization major areas of expertise (youth entrepreneurship education, financial literacy and work readiness). She works with businesses and communities in ways that help create, retain and enhance jobs and economic opportunities. As a policy analyst, she assisted in analyzing the socio-economic conditions and agriculture policies of several municipalities in Albania, in the framework of drafting the new local territorial plans under the USAID Planning and Local Governance Project. Ingrid has worked in tourism destination management and development, and in related community involvement matters, related to integrated urban economic development, tourism improvement districts, multi- stakeholders integrated management of rural and cultural tourism, and planning and catalytic investments for social cohesion and sustainable tourism development. Moreover, Ingrid has a regional experience in the Western Balkans, having researched and drafted action plans on
social sustainability and citizen engagement practices, under the World Bank’s Urban Partnership Program. Ingrid enjoys focusing on the topics of social and economic development particularly related to disadvantaged communities, and has a strong passion for tourism development, as an important sector for sustainable growth.

Host Organization: Peace Development Foundation

Role at Host Organization: Ingrid will foster a direct management relationship with grassroots community organizations that are fiscally sponsored by PDF. She will respond to inquiries from groups seeking to join the program, most of which she will manage. She will also have a role as a participant in PDF’s annual Community Organizing Grant Cycle, supporting the staff management team in Amherst and the PDF board in making grant decisions.

Lourdes has over three years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and she recently graduated with honors from Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Nicaragua where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, during which she was an exchange student at Murray State University in the U.S. for one year as part of the Global UGRAD Exchange Program. While working as an Operations Coordinator at the Organization of American States (OAS), she helped coordinating logistics and administrative operations for the Inter-American Program of Judicial Facilitators (IPJF). Previously, she worked with the community-based organization Foundation for the Development of Cuapa (FUNDED CUAPA), where she assessed the impact of several poverty reduction projects. Recognized as a young leader by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and Junior Chamber International (JCI), Lourdes has also volunteered extensively in international organizations, first in the world’s largest youth-led nonprofit AIESEC, and then as a Community Development Consultant in Brazil where she successfully developed strategies to address community needs and issues. As a fellow of the USAID funded Talent Cloud Fellowship Program, Lourdes has also conducted a research on volunteer experiences for the development of soft skills and their impact on youth employability in Nicaragua. Through these experiences she has developed skills in project management, impact assessment, research, and leadership. Furthermore, Lourdes has a strong passion for youth employment, social justice and women’s empowerment.

Host Organization: Heartland Human Care Services (HHCS)

Role at Host Organization: Lourdes will join a management team of three leaders with many years of experience to handle several major projects, including helping the Operations team at HHCS to grow toward a more strategic, coordinated approach by streamlining the infrastructure and customer service.

Saba’neh has eleven years of diverse experience working for Relief International, an international non-governmental organization as a programs manager, Palestinian Cellular Operator Jawwal in the Project management and the strategic planning unit, in addition to Teaching at the Electrical Engineering department in BirZeit University. Saba’neh was a DAAD scholarship holder and earned a very good standing M.Sc degree in Wireless Communication Engineering and Excellent standing B.Sc degree in Telecommunications Technology. Saba’neh works as the Head of the Technical Development Directorate at the Palestinian Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence. Her responsibilities vary from evaluating projects, overseeing the incubation process of startups, leading the discovery of young innovators from schools and universities and building a strong innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Palestine. Throughout her work she has developed a diverse character with strong leadership, management, and operational skills along with the solid technical background. Fostering and integrating innovation in various sectors and fields for better economy is Saba’neh’s main focus while empowering youth and women empowerment is of her main interests as she is an alumna of Techwomen mentorship program 2015.Saba’neh enjoys voluntarism and traveling.

Host Organization: IBM

Role at Host Organization: Nadiah will work closely with the Corporate Service Corps (CSC) Program Manager in Armonk on a number of projects to support the ongoing operations and deployment of CSC teams, in addition to developing new models for community engagement.

Nesrine has two years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She earned a Master Degree in Business Management in Marketing from the Mediterranean School of Business in Tunisia. She has worked as a Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator since January 2017 at the USAID-funded Business Reform & Competitiveness project (BRCP): a job creation project in Tunisia through a targeted technical and HR assistance for small and medium enterprises with the aim to increase their competitiveness. She worked closely with BRCP’s different components elaborating work plans, setting objectives jointly with the team and stakeholders. She also monitors on a regular basis the advancement and achievements of the project in accordance with the project goals – based on key performance indicators. She also reports the results to the project management, Home Office, and USAID. During recent years, she has been involved in the world of entrepreneurship and she took part in several different conferences in order to acquire more understanding in entrepreneurship. She also participated in an entrepreneurship based-program for empowering entrepreneurial minds in the emerging world. During this program, she had collaborated with other participants to create a participatory online platform to enable better communication between citizens and municipalities as well as between citizens themselves.

Host Organization: PYXERA Global

Role at Host Organization: Nesrine will help with the public and communications department in planning the Fall 2018 Global Engagement Forum, corporate sponsorship, and marketing material. She will also contribute her entrepreneurial experience to other events and strategic priorities.

Ons has more than two years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Tunis Business School in Tunisia. As a national coordinator of Tounes at Ta3mal which is an initiative of Microsoft and Sialtech, Ons was responsible for every aspect of program activities in Tunisia. She contributed to the development and growth of the Ta3mal ecosystem, which includes building a network of key contributing partners, adapting continuously the platform to the Tunisian context, and handling the outreach efforts to promote the services to youth and youth-serving organizations. Previously, Ons was the employer engagement officer of Tounes Ta3mal and became a great added value to the team and to the overall performance of the project by building strong, authentic and sustainable partnerships between the “Tounes Ta3mal” platform and the corporate environment. Through this position, she was able to connect to young opportunity seekers with talent hunters, thus shortening the unemployment gap that is facing the young Tunisian communities. Looking back at these years of active civic engagement, Ons can now say that her experience with project management in complex organizational ecosystem was the major live-training field in which she developed both interpersonal and leadership skills, but also an analytical mindset that allowed her to take into consideration new different perspectives

Host Organization: Microsoft

Role at Host Organization: Ons will help evolve global project engagements, partnerships, processes, tools, research, and thought leadership by supporting the AAI team, which collaborates with internal and external partners to develop innovative new products, solutions, and business models that enable billions more people to affordably get online and access applications and services powered by Microsoft’s Cloud.