Category: Arab Americans Who Care
On Martin Luther King Day, students from Dearborn, Mich. high schools marched in order to celebrate diversity and unity for the Dearborn community in response to recent inflammatory remarks against Arabs and Muslim Americans. One of the members of our TGI – Dearborn chapter, Ghassan Ahmed, was heavily involved in the planning process of The Real Dearborn March, as he is a member of the Dearborn Youth Affairs Commission. The Real Dearborn March allowed Ghassan to exercise his activism with fellow community members and students who are interested in fighting for the same cause.
Ghassan writes about his experience below, and how his TGI experience helped him in organizing the march:
“Uncertainty. Excitement. Concern. Pride. These were the feelings I felt when we had our first The Real Dearborn March meeting. A remarkable group of interested and involved high school students came together to speak out for our Dearborn community. By uniting and bringing together people from all parts of Dearborn, we were able to show Dearborn’s great pride and unity. We had a vision and needed to think of ways to move our vision forward. With the incredible ingenuity of young minds and the expert advice of mentors, The Real Dearborn March came to fruition in what seemed like no time at all – and with dazzling results.
TGI is not much different. TGI is a model of high school students joining forces to make a change that matters. My mentors teach me how to become an important part of any organization. They teach me how I can take advantage of building on my strengths while working on my weaknesses, and how I may improve my communication skills. I take those experiences and the things I learned from TGI with me everywhere, but they were especially helpful when organizing The Real Dearborn March. Thanks to TGI, I knew how to contribute to the organization of The Real Dearborn March and help do something that I really care about.”
We are incredibly proud of Ghassan and what he was able to achieve with The Real Dearborn March. We hope you continue to stay committed to causes you care about and continue to utilize all you learn in TGI to help your community. Learn about more Arab Americans Who Care.