- Besides that mindfulness is what I have interests in, I have the vision of building a social college space away from stressful academic work! 

- One of the project's goals is to have students and academic staff more connected in a way that both of them are simply knowing each other! I believe that everyone in AQB is special and everyone deserves to be more known!

- As mentioned before, students and staff are welcome to join this club, but the project itself extends to another segment in the Palestinian community. Mind & Curiosity Club is planned to be expanded for a summer camp, so the other young people can join as well!

- For me, this project is mostly giving me the opportunity to improve my public speaking, leadership, and project management skills. However, I find it great that I also have the chance to learn more about mindfulness as I work extra with our student's counselor!

- the club started on 12 December 2021. Thus, the concern was that students would not show much interest in joining. However, as a start, the club has almost 7 student members. 

- Leading this club gave me the chance to see what civic engagement really is through practice. Before the club, I had a basic idea that civic engagement is all about connecting with the community through contributing and helping each other. But, the more I spend time working for the club, the more I realize the feeling of belonging to my community. Civic engagement is not just an expression on paper. It is also about the amazing feeling of belonging and connecting to the community. Nevertheless, civic engagement enhances the opportunity of spreading positivity among people, and it provides young people with the opportunity to express their useful skills such as leadership. Young people have a lot of potentials, and sometimes it’s only the opportunity that is missing for them to find themselves. This is what I see in civic engagement, and this experience is what I want to share with not only my friends in college but with my small Palestinian community as well.

(First section is only about FAF, then the civic engagement sessions I joined on campus during the common hour)

1. Collaborated with interested classmates Hana and Tasneem and we brainstormed about our problem definition.
2. We had another meeting about what can we do.
3. Meeting to assign our research assignments: shelters, survey about the audience's opinions about women's rights.
4. Met to discuss, more ideas.
5. Presented our first initiative presentation for Professor Dalia Najjar, got feedback.
6. Worked on that feedback as a team.
7. Discussed our roles and capabilities, and also our target audience.
8. Created a survey to ensure that our solution is scalable and needed in the community.
9. Shelters assessment, their weaknesses and things we can do.
10. Attended a lecture about Family laws in Islam. I have connected with an NGO called Equality Now.
11. Meeting with Dima who is a member of Equality Now, gave me the email of Amal Tarazi, the executive director of the YWCA of Palestine.
12. Had a meeting with Amal T.
13. Met to write our pitch
14. practiced our pitch
15. performed our pitch in Social Entrepreneurship class
16. Met with Mr. Sobhi Swelem who is a financial advisor so we can work on our financial model and budget, our 6 years projected growth.
17. Worked on improving our financial model based on Mr. Sobhi's feedback.
18. THREE HOURS: Went to Ramallah YWCA headquarters to meet the executive director Amal Tarazi and the rest of the YWCA staff, then went to Nablus and participated in a protest in front of the building where ministers held their regular meeting, protesting for better laws that protect female domestic violence victims. It was a week after Sabreen Khwairah was killed by her husband.  
19. Pitching our financial model to the Social Entrepreneurship class. 
20. Met to review the professors' feedback
21. Met to write the presentation for the Disrupt to Sustain OSUN competition
22. Meeting with Professor Dalia to take feedback about how can we improve
23. Met with Tomas Mora, Head of Experiential Learning, and practiced our pitch with him then improved it based on his feedback.
24. Pitched our initiative in the first round of the competition.

25. attended the civic engagement workshop where Shadin introduced the student leaders and their projects. I met Sundus Fararja, the leader of Womenity, who later made me co-leader of Womenity.
26. Attended Womenity's First Information Session
27. Attended Leadership Training
28. First meeting with other interested students to brainstorm about Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign
29. Organizing the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign
30. FAF collaborating with Womenity and Shadin to brainstorm about a session called the Gender Based Violence Campaign to combat violence against women.
31. Hosting the GBV campaign. 

32.  Team Meeting to brainstorm: Tuesday January 25. We came up with the activities we have agreed on last semester and what can we actually implement at this first stage of our initiative. We agreed on a timeline\stages of implementation and our first stage is raising awareness about violence against women and girls. The workshops we agreed we can do in this stage is self defense class, women's rights in Palestine, healthy masculinity and parenting classes. 
33. Team Meeting to plan our semester activities Friday January 28: what can we do online and in person. Who we can reach out to; like self defense trainers, and guest speakers.
34. Discussion with YWCA : Saturday January 29: Met with YWCA executive director Amal Tarazi. Quick call about our intentions and plans for this semester.
35.Meeting with YWCA: Tuesday February 2
36. Meeting the Civic Engagement leader of YWCA, Shadi Zatara on February 3 to pitch my initiative. Result: Agreed to include my sessions to their Youth Development Program and I will be hosting awareness workshops to their network.   
37. Becoming an official member at YWCA and meeting the coordinators at YWCA office in Beit Jala February 14 to work on our agenda, determine the audience I will work with.
38. Joining Sundus in her session with Khawla Al Azraq, Women's Mental Health institute director and Saeda Al Atrash, Mehwar manager in their discussion about women's rights in Palestine, and the protection options a violence victim can leverage.
39. February 16th: Presenting Fight Against Femicide in the Civic Engagement Project Fair
40. February 20 Womenity Session about Marital rights and property rights.
41. February 24th: Attending the US Palestinian Affairs Live which was about youth issues, By Dr. Joseph E. Marshal.
42. March 1 Meeting with Sundus to plan for Women's Day on March 9th.
43. March 2: Meeting with Shadin to confirm the date and time, agenda of the Women's Day session.
44. March 2: Attending Mind & Curiosity's Coping with Stress session
45. THREE HOURS March 5: Women's day commemoration at YWCA, then had a meeting with the executive director of the YWCA, alongside the president of YWCA and the board members regarding the upcoming board election, which is next week on Thursday March 10th. The executive director pushed me to put my name in the elections so I can be an official member of the new Administrative Board.
46. SEVEN HOURS EXCLUDING LUNCH BREAK.   March 5: Bard C2C Fellows Sustainability Leadership Workshop hosted by Dr. Eban Goodstein,  

Director of the Bard Graduate Programs in Sustainability.
47. March 5: During lunch break from the C2C leadership program I had a 30 minutes meeting with Duaa, a YWCA leader of a women's protection program in Palestine. The executive director of YWCA referred me to her so i can learn more about their program to engage with them and promote their hotline since it is aligned with the mission of my initiative: to protect victims and prevent violence. Her organization trains therapists, experts and lawyers to increase the number of people who are fighting for women's rights in Palestine. We have agreed that we will collaborate in a session I am hosting on campus about domestic violence. They will promote a hotline that abused women and girls can leverage and how to get justice according to current basic laws.
48. March 6: Attending Womenity discussion session to discuss Palestinian women's involvement in politics. That raised my awareness about how the Intifada and earlier wars in Palestine opened the door for gender equality because women were fighting the occupation side to side with men. 
49. March 10: Had a meeting with the one of the founders of YWCA, the president of the committee, and the former administrative board. We met to elect our new administrative board. I nominated myself and the audience voted yes. This is a huge step for me to learn more about women's rights and how are things run and sustained. I am nervous but excited about this amazing opportunity. We are now 7 new members of the administrative board, and all of them are at least 30 years old. I am the youngest, and they knew it but encouraged me. I am grateful for an amazing opportunity to learn from people more experienced than me.
50. March 15: Attending OSUN Transitional Feminism course in which we heard three presentations about feminist's work. What stood out to me is Angela Davis' case study in Egypt and OSUN was generous to give out free copies of her work. I found it intriguing because Egypt has the same roots of patriarchy as we have in Palestine and there are many similarities in our societies including cultural beliefs and religion. Therefore I will be reading her work and see how can i implement that in Palestine.
51. March 15: YWCA Administrative board had its first meeting since formation. We discussed about what are the activities we can do and since Mother's day and the Land day are close by, we will be combining them in our celebration. Next week we will meet again to organize more.
52.  March 16: Attended the Roundtable Discussion on the "Russian invasion of Ukraine" hosted by Professor Iana, Prof. Sobhi and professor Amnah. We discussed what is going on in that area, why is it happening and how is it affecting citizens and the world. It was a great experience and informative discussion.
53. March 16: Fight Against Femicide collaborated with the civic engagement office and Womenity club to host the International Women's Day celebration event. In our event, we celebrated the achievements of women and especially Palestinians and Arabs, we held a trivia about women's accomplishments and had three winners. We gave them orange scarves which we designed (Together We Are Stronger in both Arabic and English on one side, and on the other side the feminism symbol). Then we distributed flowers that had "Happy Women's Day from your AQB Family" cards. It was a fun experience and informative.
54. April 13: TWO HOURS. FAF organized an event and brought keynote speakers to explain the Palestinian criminal justice laws, victim protection mechanisms including the institutes' system of transferring victims to shelters, how shelters and women institutes deal with victims, and the hotline offered. Moreover, there was a discussion about victim stories and how the institutes dealt with them, both in good ways and in bad ways.     
55. April 29: TWO HOURS.  Participated in a conference regarding political participation and the youth's role in a better future by voting. 
56. May 10: Volunteered with the University and helped them organize for their 4th Annual Research Conference that was hosted on May 11.

FAF and YWCA
1. May 28: I accompanied the YWCA in their field trip to Jericho to visit our partner YWCA there and learn about their activities and programs.
2. June 15th met a rising foundation and FAF's activities was discussed to be incorporated in their agenda
3. June 16th, met with the YWCA about what activities can we do this year, and i talked about FAF's activities, but another meeting when i am back in the country should be done to put dates and arrange.
4. Aug 3rd: Attended a 4-hour workshop about women's rights and role in society.
5. Aug 7th: Attended a 4-hour workshop about women's rights in political participation.
6. Aug 8th: 1 hour: Traveled to a village near Nablus to hear about a Palestinian woman's story of her political participation.
7. September 22. 1 hour Meeting with YWCA to talk about incorporating the activities of FAF into the annual agenda.
8. September 26: 30 mins Meeting with the current leader of Womenity Zain to talk about our collaboration this semester.
9. September 30: 3 hours  Participating in YWCA's Annual Board Meeting to discuss merging all YWCA factions under Ramallah's section, and discussing strategies of a successful merge.
 10. October 7: 3 hours  Attending a summit by Build Palestine, a summit to discuss how this generation can build a better social status for Palestine, and this first day we focused on politics.
11. October 8: 1 Hour , Met with Zain and sundus to organize for our info session.
12 October 9: 1 Hour. Did the info session for Womenity and FAF on campus.
13. ELDA Young Women for Politics:

Phase one: Online Training. 6th-21st of September
24 Hours Training
+ 5 hours building team and meetings

Phase two: Developing our strategy. September 21st to October 5th.
9 hours

Phase three: Seminar in Ramallah, 10am to 5pm, 4 days. 25th-29th October
28 Hours

TOTAL HOURS: 24+5+9+28= 66 HOURS.
These are the details:

Phase one:
First meeting: Meeting a potential team member ( Heba Dwikat) to my FAF initiative and recruiting her to expand our work in Najah University in Nablus, regarding mental health of boys and men and healthy masculinity, which is a way to prevent violence against women .

Second Meeting: Meeting with another potential team member (Shaimaa) and recruiting her to FAF.

Third Meeting: Meeting another potential team member (Hanady Salah) to FAF and recruiting her to expand our work in Gaza. She is a women's rights lawyer and has volunteered with organizations to enforce the domestic violence legislation in Palestine.

Fourth Meeting: Meeting another potential team member (Sawab) to FAF and recruiting her to expand our work in Ramallah. She has volunteered in SOS and worked with children who are at the SOS because some are children of a domestic violence victim.

Second Phase:

Fifth: Meeting my new team i met through Elda (a women empowerment program called "Young Women for Politics" to work on our first draft of our strategy.

Sixth: Pitching the first draft strategy to my mentor from Elda Academy to see how we can improve our strategy.

Seventh: 5 hours my team and I met again to carry on working on the materials for submitting the last draft of the strategy, and presentation slides, and recorded a presentation for the jury to accept us going into the next phase of the program to get advanced mentorship.

Eighth: 2 hours Met again with my team members from elda to work on our strategy, each team member's roles, and brainstorm our sessions.

14. November 6: 1.5 Hours Media and Masculinity session: FAF hosted a session to discuss how media effects toxic masculinity, definition of toxic masculinity, and how it leads to domestic violence. We also discussed what could the media do to empower domestic violence victims.
15. November 11: 2 Hours Appointed as a member of the new administrative board of the UNION of all of the YWCA in Palestine: Jericho, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Ramallah.

AQB Outreach:
1. Doha EAA Research Workshops June 15 from 8:30am to 9:30am
2. Doha EAA Research workshops June 16 from 8:30am to 10:30 

Moreover, I’m working on publishing an exclusive magazine for al-Quds Bard College with my fellow Hala, as it shed the light on AQB’s interesting activities, engaging clubs, and fruitful sessions by providing some relevant photos and memories describing the whole event as well as including a written interview with the creators themselves about their experiences as a leaders. We also would like to mention about the different experiences of exchange, undergraduate and graduated students and other interesting topics. This magazine will be published monthly.    

I started the project in December 2021. As a student leader, I face certain challenges, such as giving intensive classes and maintaining excellent contact with my classmates. However, I have applied for the Get Engaged 2022 Conference which develops good student leaders and their projects and I got accepted! Attending the Get Engaged Conference will help me improve my communication abilities with students to be able to convey information to them in the proper manner, and I need more training on how to become a good student leader who presents information in an innovative way in order to gain students' understanding. I am hoping that my presence at the conference will offer me methods and recommendations that will help me overcome the majority of the concerns. 
Through the project, I am running, I have learned a lot about myself and the importance of leading a project like this. I have learned how my voice, as a lucky Palestinian woman who gets to attend Al-Quds Bard College, has the power to affect the world, beginning with people, university colleagues, and eventually communities. I came to recognize the value of community engagement, particularly in our own nation, Palestine. I came to recognize the value of community engagement, particularly in our own nation, Palestine. This project has drastically impacted my perspective on life and society. It taught me how I can make a difference and raise awareness in the world as a young Palestinian woman. It also enabled me to learn more in order to expand my knowledge by doing the right things that need to be done. Additionally,  I discovered from my project that civic engagement is a Palestinian miracle, it is an effective approach that focuses on two dimensions: forming and revealing creative identities in university, as well as citizenship education through an appreciation of music and the understanding of its colossal significance in Palestine. It assisted me in developing and exercising leadership while making tangible changes in the community.