Anahid Ali, an American University student in the Interactive Journalism program, is trying to make the world better one place at a time.

Anahid Ali is a cheerful student at American University, located in Washington, DC. Her studies revolve around the Interactive Journalism masters program at AU, but journalism wasn’t always her education focus.

Growing up in Baghdad, Ali dispels some misunderstandings of being a woman in the Middle East. She attended an all-female secondary school, the equivalent of high school in most areas of the United States. “Living in the city was different than living in the suburb areas,” says Ali. Living in the city meant that there was little opposition to her going to school because ‘to everyone, in the city, education was a big deal whether you were male or female.’

Ali’s upbeat personality and warm smile makes it easy for strangers to see why a communications-based study would come easily to her. However, she admits that even though she studied science in high school, English was her favorite subject.

With a degree in translation, Ali worked at the US Embassy in Baghdad, until it was proven unsafe for her, leaving her job and coming to the United States in 2007.

Ali says that she would like to use her degree from American University to unite communities in the Middle East, by providing an Internet outlet for the youth and community leaders to interact towards change.