Saba Naseem
BA Journalism, BA French and Middle Eastern Studies | 2013
Worked as Editorial Assistant at Smithsonian Magazing, now a Graduate Student in Near East Studies at NYU - pursuing a Humanitarian Career.
Thanks to the Arabic program at the UofA, I was able to graduate with a strong foundation in Arabic and have been able to continue the language at the graduate level.
"Studying Arabic has allowed me to travel to countries in the MENA region and be able
to converse with the people I meet there. I have formed meaningful relationships with people abroad that I do not think would
have been possible had I not had the Arabic language skills. Additionally, I am now able to read and listen to news in Arabic, which often times
presents perspectives that are missing in Western news sources that cover the Middle
East.
Last summer I volunteered at a Palestinian refugee camp in Tyre, Lebanon and my Arabic
helped me immensely in being able to communicate with the kids I was teaching. I plan
to continue working with refugees in the future and I believe that Arabic will remain
an important part of my professional career and my personal life. Thanks to the Arabic program at the UA, I was able to graduate with a strong foundation
in Arabic and have been able to continue the language at a graduate level. "