" Being a Millennium Fellow is an absolute honor because it provides me with the opportunity to, not only tap into an incredible community of leaders and resources for my own goals and projects but witness the potential a single student can have on a community through multiple dimensions. Personally, I find myself to be a citizen who is passionate about the refugee crisis because it serves as a moment to highlight the foundations of humanity which tie us together rather than tear us apart. Basic principles like education, community, and support, which should be unalienable rights, are unfortunately tangled with the ropes of politics and torn from the world's most vulnerable and innocent: children.

As President of UNICEF at ASU, I work daily to provide the necessary resources for children in need abroad, but the symptoms of this crisis exist within our own community. As such, Hands for Henna provides an outlet to provide and empower refugee children, specifically girls, to use their education as a tool to elevate themselves beyond what the politics of this world tried to otherwise limit them within. To witness this, to be in the presence of blooming leadership amongst girls whose whole lives were uprooted, is why I do what I do. "