Through the new Global Nomads Student to World: Human Rights course, 15-year-old Nasralla Sabri Nasralla from Egypt realized the value of exchanging perspectives with his global peers: to learn from one another in pursuit of a more just world. 

Before the program, Nasralla had limited interactions with — or knowledge about — teens in other countries. “I used to spend most of my time playing video games and on social media. I heard news about wars and refugees in the world around me, but I didn’t care about it much,” he professes.

Student to World: Human Rights introduced Nasralla to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and some of the ways in which people throughout the world resist human rights violations and advocate for equality and justice. 

The program features real student stories about human rights conditions in their respective countries and tips for taking concrete action. It was created for youth by youth in Global Nomads’ Content Creation Lab, which brought together 24 high school students from Ecuador, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey, and the U.S. to work on cross-national teams facilitated by college-aged team leaders. 

Teams collaborated to develop thematic programming on topics they felt were both globally important and personally compelling. They delved deeply into the issues and embraced the opportunity — and responsibility — to open others’ eyes to critical human rights issues and principles, and to tap into young people’s motivation to bring about positive changes.  

For Nasralla, the experience of exchanging stories with global peers — both during a live event on Zoom with 80 participants from multiple countries, as well as through writing his own submission to the Global Nomads online story library — has been a tremendous opportunity to learn and grow. 

“I was isolated and lonely… [The program taught me] to make new connections with other people… to respect others’ opinions even if I do not agree… to talk freely, to be confident and tie in my strengths, and to think out of the box,” Nasralla explains.

The goal for all Global Nomads Student to World participants is for them to be inspired to take action towards a more just, equitable and sustainable future. Nasralla’s individual action plan illustrates his newfound ambitions through the following goals: “Read more about human rights and the people who have advocated for them in the past; Use the power of social media to advocate for human rights; Increase my knowledge about other countries’ laws and what they suffer there.”