Sama Habib selected to attend peace conference in Moldova

Global , Stories Students | Oct 02, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo

Sama Habib (GSB ’14) is one of only three Americans — and only 30 young people worldwide — accepted to attend a Peace Building in Eastern Europe seminar later this month in the nation of Moldova.

The conference will allow young adults to discuss strategies for enhancing peace in Eastern Europe while learning more about the region and participating in leadership-development exercises. Sama and her fellow delegates will take two study tours — a concept that should sound familiar to Gabelli School students! — to Gagauz-Yeri and Transnistria, two sub-regions of Moldova that the conference will address.

Sama is looking forward to what could be a real learning and networking opportunity.

“There will be ambassadors there from Moldova and Ukraine, whose brains I hope to pick about different issues ranging from Europe to the United States to Egypt,” she said.

Sama qualified to apply for this conference because she completed a U.S. State Department fellowship back in 2010. The Moldova conference is open to alumni of her program, the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship, which was a cultural-exchange program that placed her in a group of 10 Americans and one European from each country in Central and Eastern Europe. The group’s goal was to foster better international relations.

Sama will have a similar aim in Moldova starting on October 12.

“The program is extremely hands-on and interactive, which allows me to grow personally through simulations and discussions while being surrounded by different cultural perspectives,” she said. “Being one of the three Americans chosen, I thought it would be a good chance to represent the U.S. as well as Fordham.”