Last month, YES Alumni Raisona Alam Dip (YES 2018-2019, Bangladesh, placed with AYUSA in Gilmer, TX) and Marzaan Mirza (YES 2016-2017, Bangladesh, placed with PAX in Flagstaff, AZ) published the first online newsletter for YES Alumni in Bangladesh. Marzaan says, "We hope to increase alumni engagement through the newsletter, as well as to help the alumni tell their inspiring, witty, and heartwarming stories." Raisona emphasized the importance of opportunities for engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic while in-person activities and projects are suspended. She says, "We thought this newsletter would be a way to stay connected with each other and know what other alumni have been up to, and a way for younger and newer alumni to meet older alumni."

The newsletter has five sections: YES Scholar Highlights (recent returnees), Alumni Highlights, a special segment which has a different writing prompt in each issue (the prompt of the August issue was "The New Normal"), Featured Alumni, and Social Media Corner. For each segment, Raisona and Marzaan selected stories based on submissions from alumni in the months leading up to publication. 

Raisona and Marzaan have enjoyed creating the newsletter so far. Raisona reports, "I work on the graphics of the newsletter while [Marzaan] does the collection of the stories and the writing part. We make up a very efficient team and I love working with her." They plan to publish more newsletters in the future, with a goal of one newsletter every two months. 

Read the newsletter here!