Soliya Interview with US Arab Radio
Nahid Ahmed, Director of the Connect Program, was interviewed by Dr. Sahar Khamis, who has been implementing our curriculum for 15 years and is currently a professor of Communications and Media at the University of Maryland. Explaining the motivations and reasoning behind our model of virtual exchange, Nahid states: “Prejudices and biases are not developed at an older age - these are learned behaviors. So we want to engage young people, at a point when they are trying to find their space in the world and understand it, in working with people who are very different from them. A lot of the students we work with have never been outside the city, country, or community that they’re form, and we believe that exposure is the first building block – exposure to different cultures, ideas, and perspectives. Then through facilitated dialogue and a constructive program model, they learn how to engage with those differences in a way that is meaningful and honest.” Nahid and Dr. Khamis also discuss the impact of Soliya's virtual exchange programming, our vision, and our origins, including how the fields of conflict resolution, education, and facilitation have shaped our curriculum and the creation of the Exchange Portal, our custom-built video-conferencing platform.