Samar Rawas

Samar Rawas is a recent graduate from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, with a major in International Studies and minors in Arabic and Education. Samar was born in the United States but is ethnically from Lebanon. Samar is passionate about peacebuilding and conflict resolution in the Middle East and North Africa.  She is a previous recipient of the Critical Language Scholarship studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan.  Samar has also worked with projects such as the Middle East Institute Youth Summit, which brought together university students from the MENA region with a group of American students to discuss cross-border social, political, and cultural topics related to human rights to learn best practices for U.S. foreign engagement.  These experiences and her prior research as a Cooper-McElvaney Social Justice Fellow confirmed her commitment to pursue humanitarian work in USAID.  Samar has also served as Student Government President at her previous institution and has served over 65,000 students on campus.  This chapter has grown tremendously and won student, advisor, event, and chapter of the year at the SGA state convention during her term. In her spare time, Samar enjoys working with her fellow board members on a nonprofit which helps minority students with scholarships, grants, and resources to help students flourish. Samar also enjoys learning new languages and is currently studying French.