Awista Ayub: Neilly Series Lecture

Awista Ayub: Neilly Series Lecture

2009-11-12

Awista Ayub will talk about her work forming a young women's soccer team in Afghanistan. In 2003, she founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to preparing Afghanistan's youth with leadership skills required to promote athletics into their schools and communities. Subsequently, AYSE sponsored 8 young women to go to the US, making it the first international girls soccer team from Afghanistan. In 2006, Ayub brought Afghan-American coaches to Afghanistan to organize a girls soccer clinic, working with more than 250 girls through the auspices of the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee. Two Afghan female soccer players sponsored by AYSE received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2006 ESPYs.

Ayub has been featured in a number of national news publications and programs including ABC News Person of the Week, ESPN, Glamour Magazine Hero of the Month, CNN American Morning, New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washingtonian, and USA Today.

Ayub is a 2001 graduate of the University of Rochester. She also has a MPA from the University of Delaware. From 2005 to 2007, she served as the Education and Health Officer at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC. Photo © Scott Duncan.

Introduction by Paul J. Burgett, Vice President and General Secretary

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