I had the honor to be invited as a Design Trainer for Young Tech Leaders of the Middle East, a three-week program to provide conflict-affected youth in the Middle East with technology leadership and human-centered design skills. The participants attended design thinking and leadership workshops, and worked with a team on a final project to tackle a problem in their community or the broader world.

Over the course of the program, I designed lesson plans for sessions I was teaching, and co-facilitated the final design critique in which the participants presented their team projects. Once the program was completed, I served as a mentor for two of the participants to support them with career advice and portfolio feedback. I’m grateful to have been a part of an initiative that uplifts underrepresented groups and contributes to greater diversity of thought and experience of creators in the tech space.