Wajiha Mekki
Wajiha is a passionate education and life-skills advocate. As a Cancer Biology, Political Science and Epidemiology student, Wajiha takes an interdisciplinary approach to education advocacy, by linking policy outcomes and global health security concerns to education issues. Her commitment to education advocacy influences her story on public health awareness and its relation to school absenteeism in rural Southeastern United States.
“While growing up, I saw the impact of limited language proficiency in the United States, specifically on younger students. From creating barriers to connecting with other students, to making it more challenging to advocate for themselves beyond the classroom, limited language capacity and lack of effective linguistic development opportunities can yield negative impacts on young people.
From my own experience taking English Second Language courses for a short time, I know the critical value of such programmes and their foundational role in helping students feel confident in communicating about themselves and connecting with the world around them. Building on my personal experiences, I pursued a graduate certificate in Education of Teaching Multilingual Learners at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to deepen my practical and academic understanding of this phenomenon.
In the United States, publicly-funded multilingual support is often restricted to the academic year, leaving a gap in the summer. Student leaders, many of whom come from multilingual backgrounds, are working to bridge this gap. As someone passionate about youth skills development in educational spaces, I wanted to share some stories of those who are changemakers on their campus and within their communities. It was challenging to focus on just two, but I hope individuals who read this will take a step forward as changemakers themselves, providing another opportunity for English language learners in their own community. And I hope decision-makers mobilise support for such changemakers, ensuring all individuals can feel confident navigating English.”