NPR recently profiled girls and women around the world under the campaign #15Girls, and asked them, "What was the hardest thing about being 15?”

One YES alumna from Yemen, Maroa Al-Katheri, was highlighted in the main article. She reported, “For me, the hardest thing about being a fifteen-year-old girl was convincing my family to let me study abroad as an exchange student since my family was afraid of the Yemeni community’s reaction if they let me travel alone. However, I was able to show my family that it’s okay if a girl travels alone and many girls have done so already. And, thanks to that valuable experience now I am doing my college studies at LAU University in Lebanon.”

Explore the full NPR piece! 

Maroa Al-Katheri, YES 2013-2014, Yemen, hosted by AFS in Crownsville, MD