GPS Student's Pakistan Program Getting National Attention in US

[Omar1984]

GPS Student's Pakistan Program Getting National Attention


February 17, 2009 - 1:13 PM
Erica Green

Girls Preparatory School is in the national spotlight tonight.

A US spirit committee named a GPS Junior a top youth volunteer.

Alizeh Ahmad was born in the U.S. but says she has always felt a strong connection to Pakistan, where her parents grew up.

We travel back to Pakistan often. Have done it every other year since I was a baby and the people there. I just love the culture."

Alizeh says after reading "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortanson she wanted to follow his lead. Mortanson is an american author who builds schools in Pakistan. So Alizeh started a school fundraiser. G-P-S raised 2 thousand dollars for Mortanson's charity.

"I went to Pakistan last summer and was even more inspired by the girls studying there of girls in Pakistan who are in need of an education. They are providing an unbias eduation in Pakistan which is really doing a lor of getting those women to form their own opinions about what is going on in Pakistan right now. There's a lot of political issues," said Ahmad.

She fits into the crowd of young women in the student center but her teachers say she's stands out as a quiet leader.

"She's a very humble person. Who does the type of leadership that I particularly like. She's not an out in front kind of person. She's behind the scenes but she's a worker. She has a vision," said Jessica Good Dean of Faculty at GPS.

"They are very giving. They 're very hospitable, sacrifice everything. Just they're selfless. I don't really see that here in America," said Ahmad.

Alizeh hopes to show that selflessness to her fellow students. She plans to go to Washington D.C.where she'll be honored for the award in May.


GPS Student's Pakistan Program Getting National Attention | pakistan, alizeh, girls - Local News - WTVC Newschannel9.com

 

[Omar1984]

Dalton youth honored for volunteer efforts

Victor Miller

Alizeh Ahmad loves traveling to her family’s native country, Pakistan. She loves the food, the culture, “the feeling of togetherness the people have over there.”

But Ahmad, a junior at Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga who lives in Dalton, also saw a need while visiting the country. And after reading “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson, the founder of the Central Asia Institute that has built numerous schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Ahmad decided to get involved.

“I felt that Greg Mortenson really understood what Pakistan needed to get further, and he understood what the children there needed,” said Ahmad, the daughter of Dr. Ezad and Mona Ahmad and the sister to brother Mekaal and younger sister Zoha. “I was really inspired by his efforts.”

So Ahmad encouraged her classmates at GPS and others in the community to read Mortenson’s book, school officials said, and a fund-raising committee at the school — the Robin Hood committee — devoted its annual festival to raising money for Mortenson’s institute.

For her efforts, Ahmad has been named one of Georgia’s top two youth volunteers for 2009 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a program that honors young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism.

Ahmad will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and a trip in May to Washington, D.C. While there, she and the other honorees — two from each state, one from middle school and one from high school — will be recognized for their charitable acts.

Ten will be named the top youth volunteers in the country for 2009. Those honorees will receive additional awards and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for the charitable organization of their choice.

Ahmad said she learned of the honor on Friday.

“I was really surprised,” she said. “I wasn’t planning on applying until one of my teachers brought it to me kind of last minute ... I never expected that I would actually win, there were so many good applications from Georgia.”

“We’re very excited,” Mona Ahmad said.

For the festival, Alizeh Ahmad made sure the Pakistani culture she loves so much was well represented. She sought out Pakastani women to donate food and offer henna tattoos, school officials said.

The result? Some $62,000 was raised, “enough to build a school and supply it with furniture, textbooks and five years’ worth of supplies,” GPS officials said. “Ahmad also asked her classmates to write letters to schoolgirls in Pakistan and traveled with her family to see firsthand the schools Mortenson has built. While there, she purchased more school supplies for students and made a movie to present to audiences back home.”

Last year, Mortenson was the keynote speaker for the Conference for the Advancement and Support of Education in Nashville, Tenn. Then a sophomore, Ahmad told the conference that Mortenson’s organization “is giving children the education for democracy to actually work in Pakistan and, more, a chance for each child to become his or her own person,” according to the GPS Web site.

“The recipients of these awards vividly demonstrate that young people across America are making remarkable contributions to the health and vitality of their communities,” said John R. Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, which oversees the awards program with the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “They truly deserve all of the praise and encouragement we can give them.”

The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA - Dalton youth honored for volunteer efforts

 

[metalfalcon]

I hope they Just Help Rebuild the Girls Schools in SWAT that were destroyed by the Taliban.

It will be a great Favor for Young Pakistani Girls.