GHASSAN GAMMOH ’10 enriches Harvard’s Arab community

Ghassan Gammoh ’10 has applied the leadership skills he developed at King’s Academy to the Harvard University campus, where he serves as vice president of the Harvard Society of Arab Students (SAS). After joining the organization his freshman year, Ghassan became treasurer before attaining his most recent promotion.

Since the beginning of his time at Harvard, Ghassan has made a positive impact through his involvement with SAS. As a freshman in 2011, he led the Harvard College team alongside the president of SAS in planning a panel on the role of women in the Arab Spring. He then turned to a more directly humanitarian cause, organizing a social fundraiser for Syrian refugees as part of the 2011 Harvard Arab Conference. This event, the largest pan-Arab conference in North America, with over 650 attendees, was commended by the White House.

Ghassan has also played the role of unofficial ambassador to the Arab world on behalf of Harvard. He planned the biennial Harvard Arab Alumni recruiting trip to the Middle East, during which he presented on Harvard admissions and gave college advice to over 200 high school students in Egypt and Jordan, including students at King's Academy. Back on campus, he organizes social, cultural and political events for the Arab community at Harvard.

Ghassan has invested his time so heavily in SAS, which has been around since 1996, because he believes strongly in its mission: to support students of Arab origin, promote awareness of Arab issues and provide a forum for all those interested in the Arab world. For new students coming to Harvard, SAS provides a welcoming environment where students can feel at home but also grow in their understanding of the Arab world by getting to know people from all around the Middle East. Ghassan benefited from this nurturing group as a younger student and is now happy to help create the same experience for others.

DANA ALJAWAMIS ’10 creates a venue for political discourse

Dana Aljawamis ’10 has brought her passion for editing and publishing to Wellesley College, where she founded the non-partisan, biannual Wellesley Globalist, an international affairs publication affiliated with the Global21 network, an umbrella organization for student-run magazines at top universities, based at Yale University.

Dana’s work on the Globalist is a prime example of King’s alumni working together to have a positive impact on their peers. Dana opened the Wellesley chapter in February 2012 with the support and encouragement of Faisal Kawar ’10, vice president of Global21. Burhan Aldroubi ’11 has also founded a Global21 magazine at Williams College, where he is a sophomore.

After getting an initial boost from Faisal, Dana has taken the ball and run with it. She undertook the entire process of assembling a staff, attaining funding and publicizing the magazine. All these nuts and bolts came before the substantive work of soliciting, editing and publishing the content. She and her staff proceeded to spend several months working through student-written submissions. At the end of the process, 700 copies of the first issue, entitled “Women in Revolutions,” hit campus newsstands on December 10, 2012.

The aim of the magazine, as Dana reports, is to present international affairs issues to its college student readership in a way that is more accessible than other publications of its kind. As such, Dana edits with a preference for journalistic writing and a visually appealing layout. Her commitment to the Globalist is a continuation of an interest in publications that started at King’s Academy, where she helped found Al-Majnouneh literary magazine. Meanwhile, she draws inspiration for the Globalist’s ethos from Wellesley’s emphasis on feedback and critique: she seeks regular criticism from professors and pursues opportunities to exchange articles with other publications in the Global21 network.

Visit wellesleyglobalist.org and contribute to the conversation yourself!