Hind Al Ali, an active participant in the Student Leadership Program (SLP) at American University of Sharjah (AUS), was selected by the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi to participate in the Active Citizen Summit held in Chicago and Washington, DC, March 26-April 16, 2014.

This prestigious 22 day summit offered professional training and open discussions with business, community and government leaders. The summit aimed to develop action plans for the future and sustainable initiatives that would strengthen entrepreneurial and business opportunities in communities. Importantly, the students had to complete the Entrepreneurship Project Description and throughout the summit, they participated in professional training, internships, and one-on-one mentoring focused on further developing and revising their project plan with an eye toward transforming it into action.

According to Al Ali, "Participating in the Active Citizen Summit gave me a great chance to gain international exposure to the entrepreneurship world, starting from being a member of a diversified group of 18 active nationals and entrepreneurs each representing a country from MENA region. The program focused on building entrepreneur technical skills such as fund raising and networking through internship and strengthens the soft skills through workshops and sessions at DePaul University. I got the chance to meet successful business owners and powerful politicians to learn from their success stories. It was a fruitful trip that made me more independent, active in the community and focused on my future goals and plans." Al Ali is a Master of Business Administration student at AUS.

"The Student Leadership Program continues to provide students with international leadership development exposure and we are happy to hear that Hind benefited from her participation in the Active Citizen Summit. Most importantly, she came back with wonderful ideas and a better understanding of how to implement her project in an effective way. We thank the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi for its support and look forward for future collaboration," said Dr. Moza Al Shehhi, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.