| Youth Leadership Conference AACCESS-Ohio held its second annual youth conference, AYWA, which stands for the Arab American Youth Working for Achievement. It was one of the biggest youth events AACCESS-Ohio has held. The conference took place on Saturday, April 9, 2005. Over 150 youth attended the conference which was a day long. The conference consisted of workshops which taught our Arab American youth how to become leaders in their communities as well as gaining the skill to empower themselves for the future. The keynote speaker was Jean Zarzour, a well renowned actress from the Cleveland area. Other influential speakers that attended the youth conference are Steve Stanzik, a sergeant from the Cleveland police, George Salim from the Arab American Institute, and Suheir Hammad, a def jam poet. All these speakers reached out to the Arab American youth to help instill the necessary tools of leadership to succeed in life. The youth benefitted not only from the experiences of the speakers but gaining their own experiences form the youth that they met during the conference as well. There was the Palestinian debka group, karate kids led by Khalil Dari, and live Arabic music provided by Naser Hanna and Mousa Kash. Board members and volunteers put forth much time and effort to make the conference a huge success. Let us keep our youth involved by keeping AYWA a successful annual event. Back to Our Services Back to Home Page |
