Yasmine Agoun Ties Up Gender Equality with the World of Business.

Gender equity has always been a compelling argumentative topic to Yasmine Agoun, a LAU MEPI TL student from Algeria. As a young woman who  had to face some gender insecurities whilst growing up in her home country, Agoun chose to take a non-mainstream approach and start nurture woman empowerment in campus.

During the Freshman year, Agoun  worked on developing self- discipline knowing that women empowerment starts from within. She participated in a list of community service that LAU has to offer ; She volunteered in DAFA campaign for clothes collection for Christmas on December 2018 and visited a Syrian refugee camp in Tripoli with the UNHCR on April 2018. Agoun has also participated in the TEDxLAU event that took place in June 30, 2018.

In the second academic year, Agoun was elected as LAU MEPI TL Gender Committee President and she got the ball rolling with a series of values-centered activities for young women ; She organized the « Women at Work : The story of a daily challenge » session highlighting  female challenges at work. She also participated in different workshops and sessions representing the LAU MEPI TL Gender Committee : to name a few, her participation at the Self Defence workshop organized by the LAU Arab Institute for Women (AiW), her participation in another women empowerment session organized by Womanity Foundation. Additionally, she was selected by the « Institut Français du Liban » (French Institute) to represent Lebanon and Algeria in the conference : « Droits des femmes : égalité et citoyenneté » (Women rights : equality and citizenship) that will take place from June 30 till July 7 2019 in Paris.

These initiatives helped Agoun to develop different skills such as positive attitude, proper communication, team work, organization, thinking skills  that helped her broaden her vision about the woman’s situations beyond the Algerian context to start cover  the MENA region as well.

Agoun chose Banking and Finance as Major, a male –dominated industry specially in the Middle East, to break the status quo and help integrating women’s empowerment into the world of business ; Agoun attributes her continued growth to the MEPI Program that strengthens youth with knowledge and skills to effectively engage with the society.