Saudi Arabia: Girl selected as youth ambassador

JEDDAH –A first-year student at the College of Business Administration, Ala’a Al–Mizyen, has recently been selected as Saudi Youth Ambassador for the Middle East Youth Initiative. Ala’a, 18, is also the founder president of the on-campus student organization Saudi Arabia’s Women of Tomorrow.

Saudi Arabia’s Women of Tomorrow aims to instill and nurture the leadership role in female students, Ala’a said. She looks forward to providing opportunities for character development and enrichment, to extend networking and team-building beyond classrooms.

The student organization organizes periodic debates on current local and international issues. Moreover, presentations are made by students on matters that interest the present generation.

Ala’a finds much of her inspiration and enthusiasm from the global activist work she regularly takes part in, most recently the Young Arab Leaders/Learning from the Future Conference held in Dubai.

Ala’a was also selected by the British Council from a pool of applicants to attend the Learning from the Future workshop. As the youngest and only undergraduate college student chosen, she represented Saudi Arabia at the workshop covering global and regional issues such as climate change, the multi-polar world, energy crisis, and relations between the Arab World and the West.

Presently Ala’a is working on her first article for the Middle East Youth Initiative which will be based on national educational reform.

She is optimistic about national women’s development, seeing great potential in her colleagues and is devoted to increasing the variety and effectiveness of female leaders.

By Sabahat F. Siddiqi, Saudi Gazette