Palestinian American Youth Civic Engagement

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Palestinian American Youth Civic Engagement (PAYCE) is a virtual exchange program based at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem that connects Palestinian and U.S. university students to share information and ideas about how young people participate in public life to improve their societies. PAYCE is funded by the Aspen Institute Stevens Initiative, which is supported by the U.S. Department of State.

The Stevens Initiative is an international effort to build global competence and career readiness for young people in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa while growing and enhancing the field of virtual exchange: online, international, and collaborative learning.

The program will connect students from two Palestinian universities – Al-Quds University and An-Najah National University – with students from four American institutions – the University of Hartford, the University of New Hampshire, Drake University, and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.

In January 2018, sixteen students from the six institutions gathered at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, in order to compare ideas about civic engagement, and to learn how to create podcasts. A second cohort completed the program in summer 2018 in Amman, Jordan. These students return to their home campuses to serve as peer leaders to help other students create podcasts together on civic engagement. The podcasts are used in the virtual exchange and are available as PAYCE Stories in iTunes and online at https://www.buzzsprout.com/215436.

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