US Consulate Co-Hosts 3rdCareer Day for Girls with Young Entrepreneurs Palestine Helping Girls Achieve their Career Aspirations

April 1, 2009

Jerusalem: Two hundred Palestinian girls from local public and private high schools imagined their possible futures at a career day fair organized by Young Entrepreneurs Palestine (YEP) with the support of the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. The students visited the many booths where 25 professional women from the fields of business, law, media, art, NGO project management, and government service enthusiastically shared career advice. The students questioned these successful Palestinian women about which schools and courses to choose, how to develop job-specific skills, how to write a CV and how to balance work and family responsibilities. For their part, the female professionals enjoyed serving as role models and meeting the next generation of Palestinian professional women.

Jacqueline Deley, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S Consulate General, who helped staff a booth of female diplomats, commented that, "We are back by popular demand. This is our third girls-only career day organized with local partners in the West Bank and the girls never fail to inspire us with their talents, enthusiasm and energy. We are proud to be part of this effort to help them realize their dreams of building a better future for all Palestinians." Ms. Deley added that "the Consulate has also sponsored Career Fairs for male and female university students, giving them the opportunity to meet with recruiters from various Palestinian companies. We are grateful to YEP for its hard work in organizing this event and plan to work with YEP on sponsoring three university-level fairs later this year."

The event, which is also part of the Consulate's celebration of Women's History Month, was held at the Al-Manna Center in Ramallah and hosted students from Ramallah Girls High School, Khawla Bint Al-Azwan Girls School, the Spanish High School for Girls, Alhia College High School, the Arab Evangelical School, and the American School.

For more information please contact the U.S. Consulate's Press Office at 02-622-6908 or 02-622-6909 or Assistant Information Officer Christina Higgins at 054-678-8501.