Hafez S. AbuAdwan

Hafez S. AbuAdwan is a first year Master’s student from Gaza, Palestine. He has worked with local and international NGOs focusing on formal and non-formal education. He worked at the American International School in Gaza (AISG), at the Gaza Training College- UNRWA, and at Loyola University in Chicago as FUBLRIGHT Scholar. Hafez also worked for several years with AMIDEAST mainly on the ACCESS Micro-scholarship program for Palestinian youth. Because Palestinian youth lives completely under the Israeli occupation, they seek their most basic desires to have the right to live, love, and laugh. Hafez also co-founded “Voices from Palestine”; a creative writing group. Since 2008, this group has been active in generating a series of creative Palestinian writers.

"After several years of experience in the field of education and experiencing several wars, I reached the realization that youth needs to be empowered through Peace Education where they can learn and apply conflict resolution and negotiation methods and tactics. Hence, CIE aligns perfectly with my academic professional interests. Here at CIE, I have ample opportunity to observe and learn from complex mixture of expertise in the field of international development. I will be able to utilize my knowledge to better benefit Palestinian youth. After all, it is all about preparing the leaders of tomorrow."