Hamza Arsbi, a YES alumnus from Jordan, received the American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford (AMENDS) fellowship. The fellowship involves a week long workshop at Stanford University in which there are lectures with entrepreneurs and policy makers  as well as talks from the students themselves about their projects and accomplishments. AMENDS also allows the students to meet and learn from each other in an effort to connect individuals from around the world. 

Hamza received the fellowship as a result of his work with the Scientific Cultural Society, a nonprofit organization that he founded last year and now chairs. Hamza created the organization after suffering from severe asthma as a child. He was exposed to modern medicine and science from a very young age and feels indebted to the doctors, nurses, and technology that saved his life. As he grew older, he also came to see science as something that transcends national borders, political affiliations, religions, and ethnicities. This view of science inspired him to create the Scientific Cultural Society so that others would also understand the importance of science. 

The organization aims to improve science education in Jordan, toraise public awareness to the importance of science, and to provide the people of Jordan with the tools to face issues such as climate change and water cleanliness. The Scientific Cultural Society works to make science interactive and fun for children in order to show them that science can be used in their everyday lives. Hamza feels that by educating the youth of Jordan and making communities more scientifically literate, policy makers would be more responsive to scientific solutions to the country's problems. 

To find out more about AMENDS and Hamza's fellowship, please read here.