Yasmine El Baggari (YES 2009-2010, Morocco, hosted by American Councils in Overland Park, KS) sits next to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Dwight Bush on a panel at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakesh, November 2014

Yasmine El Baggari is using her unique experiences from the YES program to change the world on a global scale. She created an online platform to link travelers with hosts, an innovative project with the aim of fostering cultural exchange and more peaceful relations.

In Huffington Post, Yasmine recently said, "My story is of a young girl who wanted to travel to and study in the U.S., who was inspired by many warm and welcoming U.S. hosts, and whose dream grew into to a dedication to unite people from around the world.”

As a teenager on the YES program, Yasmine was hosted in Overland Park, KS. Currently in her final year at Hampshire College, Yasmine has now travelled across the United States, staying with over 75 hosts.

This led Yasmine to create Voyaj, an online platform that links travelers with hosts not just based on availability but on interests and personality. Voyaj seeks to make travel personal and to allow hosts to learn and share with their guests.

As Yasmine explains in a recent piece on Forbes, “Using technology and sophisticated algorithms, we really change the travel experience. For too long, empty rooms, guidebooks and bus tours offered limited world views, with little emotion beyond the excitement of travel. With Voyaj, we share daily life and views with locals as they live it. A traveler is no longer just a visitor; they become a guest in a local’s home.”

Voyaj helps to multiply the experiences of many YES students and hosts and bring those opportunities to a much wider audience. This is the YES legacy in action!

Yasmine’s many accomplishments as a social entrepreneur include:

– World Economic Forum, Jordan, 2015, Invited Speaker
– “She Leads Africa” Fellowship 2015
– Global Social Business Summit, One Young World Ambassadors, Berlin, Germany, 2015, Invited Speaker
– Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Morocco 2014: Panelist on women’s entrepreneurship panel with Vice President Joe Biden
– Top 100 Most Influential Traveler Bloggers for Millennials, Wash DC 2014: White House, National Security Council event.

A wide range of media outlets are writing about Yasmine’s accomplishments, including:
• The Arab Daily News
• Hampshire College