Title: GU-Q Alumnus Wins Award From Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II recently honored Haroon Yasin (SFS’15), an alumnus of Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), for his work to educate underprivileged children.

Yasin, of Islamabad, Pakistan, was one of only 60 winners of the 2018 Queen’s Young Leaders Awards, a global program that recognizes and celebrates young people who are using their skills to impact their communities.

The GU-Q alumnus co-founded – with GU-Q alumnus Ahwaz Akhtar (SFS’16) – an educational organization called Orenda that uses cartoons and digital streaming to bring school curriculums to Pakistani children unable to attend formal classes or at risk of dropping out of school.

During his visit to England, Yasin and his fellow award winners heard a speech delivered by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and completed a custom-designed course at Cambridge University.

They met with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and former Prime Minister Sir John Major and visited a number of organizations, including the BBC.

“The ceremony itself came on the end of a completely packed week, where we had the chance to delve deeper into our work with dedicated mentors at Cambridge University,” said Yasin. “We discussed ideas on how to build movements and advocacy around improving the access and quality of education in our contexts.”

The GU-Q alumnus hopes the knowledge gained from the experience will enable him to scale up Orenda’s work, as the organization continues to expand the reach of their learning app.