| The university’s Text-in-Community program kicks off the academic year with keynote speaker, Shiza Shahid, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization that works to provide educational opportunities for girls and women in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The event is on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 4 p.m. in Harrison Auditorium.
Shahid will speak on behalf of Malala Yousafzai, author of “I Am Malala”– the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban.
Born in Islamabad, Pakistan, Shahid has been an activist since her teenage years. She worked with children born to women in prison and helped with earthquake relief in Pakistan in 2005. She is a graduate of Stanford University.
Shahid worked as an analyst for McKinsey and Company, in Dubai, Saudi Arabia. She first learned about Malala in 2009, through a New York Times documentary on Malala’s secret BBC blogs and interviews and then contacted the family to find out how she could help. When girls’ schools in Swat Valley were closed down by the Taliban, Shahid ran a camp for Malala and other girls in Islamabad while on summer break from Stanford. Her bond with the Yousafzai family grew stronger in 2012 when Malala was shot by the Taliban.
Shahid has been named one of Time magazine’s “30 Under 30 World Changers” and to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list of social entrepreneurs.
The university will host additional programs throughout the 2014-15 academic year, including book discussions, a health care reform event and gender equality lectures. This event is free and open to the public.
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