12/01/10 08:00 MDT - Mohamed Hamdy Elwan is in his final year of civil engineering studies at Ain Shams University, in Cairo, Egypt. He has been active in the GLOBE Program since 2001 and is currently head of GLOBE Alumni in the Near East and North Africa region. Mohamed participated in a regional GLOBE conference in Bahrain in 2003 that sparked his commitment to the program, and after high school he formed a GLOBE Egypt alumni group along with a small group of former GLOBE students. Mohamed and his team are now working to reinvigorate GLOBE in Egypt. On 15 June 2010, they met with Charles Bolden, current NASA administrator and former U.S. astronaut on his visit to Cairo, and later, U.S. President Obama’s Representative to the Middle East to update them on GLOBE Alumni activities in the region.“GLOBE is not just an activity,” writes Mohamed. “It’s a way of life. When you teach kids how to take care of the environment and make them aware of the changes around them, that makes a big difference in a community.” Mohamed encourages all young people to become involved with GLOBE in order to benefit from a truly international experience, sharing knowledge among different communities in the GLOBE network, developing teamwork skills, changing behaviors that negatively impact the environment, and working toward solutions to environmental issues in their communities. “Overall, by doing GLOBE,” emphasizes the energetic Mohamed, “you’re participating in life, not just watching it.”
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