After enduring Hurricane Katrina, Nour Nasser tackles new challenges
24 January 2008
By Jan McGirk
USINFO Special Correspondent
Jerusalem -- Nour Nasser’s year at Tulane University in Louisiana began with a calamity, but because of it the Palestinian student has learned to deal with anything. Nasser, who won a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) scholarship for graduate studies, arrived in New Orleans in 2005 just as Hurricane Katrina struck.
These days, emergencies do not faze Nasser, who has learned to remain calm and focused. Working as a West Bank field operations representative for CARE International, Nasser attributes her inner drive to an intense year she spent as an exchange student in the United States.
“It changed my personality,” she says. “Now I can face anything.” This 25-year-old from Ramallah, the West Bank, perseveres until a task is accomplished, whether it is getting insulin to a diabetic grandmother in a remote village or rushing an inhaler for a wheezing toddler past a security checkpoint.
Nasser is one of more than 150 Palestinians who have benefited from USAID's Master's Degree Scholarship Program over the past eight years. Considering the shortage of qualified managers in critical sectors of the Palestinian economy -- ranging from business administration, information technology and environmental studies to law, finance, and public health administration -- the program bridges a serious gap. Many graduates return immediately to the Palestinian Territories and use U.S.-learned skills to devise new approaches to old problems.
The day before Nasser was scheduled to start classes in public health administration at Tulane the weather was inclement and growing worse by the minute. Her flight landed at Louis Armstrong Airport on August 29, 2005, only moments before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Nasser and her fellow passengers endured the monster storm’s full fury. She was unhurt, but seeing some of Katrina’s 1,836 fatalities floating in the streets was sobering. Compared to their problems, hers seemed like minor inconveniences.
Still, except for her carry-on suitcase, all her belongings were ruined, left in a sodden heap on the floor of her student rental. “Eventually we made it out to Baton Rouge [Louisiana] ... and then we were put onto a helicopter flight to Atlanta,” she recalled two years later.
Jerusalem -- Nour Nasser’s year at Tulane University in Louisiana began with a calamity, but because of it the Palestinian student has learned to deal with anything. Nasser, who won a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) scholarship for graduate studies, arrived in New Orleans in 2005 just as Hurricane Katrina struck.
These days, emergencies do not faze Nasser, who has learned to remain calm and focused. Working as a West Bank field operations representative for CARE International, Nasser attributes her inner drive to an intense year she spent as an exchange student in the United States.
“It changed my personality,” she says. “Now I can face anything.” This 25-year-old from Ramallah, the West Bank, perseveres until a task is accomplished, whether it is getting insulin to a diabetic grandmother in a remote village or rushing an inhaler for a wheezing toddler past a security checkpoint.
Nasser is one of more than 150 Palestinians who have benefited from USAID's Master's Degree Scholarship Program over the past eight years. Considering the shortage of qualified managers in critical sectors of the Palestinian economy -- ranging from business administration, information technology and environmental studies to law, finance, and public health administration -- the program bridges a serious gap. Many graduates return immediately to the Palestinian Territories and use U.S.-learned skills to devise new approaches to old problems.
The day before Nasser was scheduled to start classes in public health administration at Tulane the weather was inclement and growing worse by the minute. Her flight landed at Louis Armstrong Airport on August 29, 2005, only moments before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Nasser and her fellow passengers endured the monster storm’s full fury. She was unhurt, but seeing some of Katrina’s 1,836 fatalities floating in the streets was sobering. Compared to their problems, hers seemed like minor inconveniences.
Still, except for her carry-on suitcase, all her belongings were ruined, left in a sodden heap on the floor of her student rental. “Eventually we made it out to Baton Rouge [Louisiana] ... and then we were put onto a helicopter flight to Atlanta,” she recalled two years later.
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