Abdullah Al Ghurair Scholarship recipient, Global Children's Peace Prize top 3 finalists, co-founder of ToRead, founder of the first-ever coding club at her school, and a future Architect, Aya Youssef dazzles us again after being chosen among the Top 50 finalists on the global level due from thousands of applications from around the world in the Chegg Global Student Prize.
In the small alleyways of Borj Albarajneh, a Palestinian camp in Beirut, Aya stepped her first steps and grew up to mold her dreams, but struggled to know how she would realize them. “ I believe that the architectural and infrastructural aspects of the camp are at risk or even limiting the many opportunities that we could have, such as proper open and environmental spaces and more. The camp, in a way or so, is a closed community that shall be involved more and differently with the surroundings on a social level whereby a few programs would work on that”, aya said to Kayani in a recent interview.
Planning, anticipating, getting involved, and noticing what her community needed, that’s what sustained Aya throughout her experimental and life journey which started back in 2016-2017 where she started the first-ever coding club at her school. She shared her knowledge and experience in coding with around 20 students who were willing and continuously eager to learn something new. In 2017, she was nominated by ULYP to the Global Children's Peace Prize and was chosen as Top 3 students from Lebanon.
That was the point she personally started noticing the problem of accessibility to resources about available universities and scholarships in Lebanon, so throughout her own research of information about this specific area, she started sharing opportunities with classmates and colleagues, which was just the beginning. She partnered up a year later with 2 changemakers having the same vision and mission where they co-founded ToRead to continuously support the community.
Aya is currently an AUB Architecture undergraduate after receiving a fully funded Alghurarir foundation scholarship. Her choice of major made her embrace a new realm of knowledge and shifted her mindset to think of many concepts and integrate design differently, whether in the real or virtual world. “Architecture pushes oneself to think of the other, the self, and the thoughts, socially, economically, spatially, environmentally, and way more” expresses Aya passionately to Kayani.
Through her scholarship community, she was introduced to the Global Student Award, which is awarded to exceptional students making a change and impacting other students’ lives. After a rigorous and competitive selection from thousands of applicants, she was chosen among the top 50 finalists.
“I believe that it all started with a personal initiative. Being engaged in different programs, events, hackathons, connecting with other people, getting involved within the community, and accepting the change are the most important part of my civic engagements. They all, combined, provide me with enough tools to deal with any situation with confidence and maturity” said Aya.
With her confidence and perseverance, Aya is carving her own path. She believes self-learning is the strongest tool to level up, unlock new features, and grow on your own. Whether she’s learning 3D modeling and rendering techniques, growing her freelancing projects, or thinking of her next social innovation project, Aya is flourishing and backing up her community throughout the way.
Knowing about Aya’s journey in such hard times must only be a source of inspiration for young Palestinian females to fully know that they can stand tall and claim their place in this world.