LOCATION: Tarqumiya Municipality, Hebron Governorate
In the town of Tarqumiya outside Hebron, the well-respected Tarqumiya Society for Higher Education offered scholarships to disadvantaged university students. A local charity donated an office to the organization, enabling it to use a Community Leadership Empowerment Program award to set up a computer lab. Students used the lab to conduct research and receive tutoring. The strategic planning process caused the leadership to make several crucial changes. In order to target youth, the Tarqumiya Society’s board recognized the organization’s need for a young face and delegated a 32-year-old to run the organization. To optimize the use of its scholarship money, the Tarqumiya Society conducted a demographic survey. Finding a surplus of people working as doctors and engineers, which are prestigious professions, the Tarqumiya Society has begun to incentivize the study of physics and chemistry seeking to fill employment gaps in these vital professions.