Question 1

What is the Light Up Yemen initiative?

Accepted Answer

Light Up Yemen is a storytelling project that shares firsthand narratives from Yemeni people to counter incomplete or one-sided portrayals of Yemeni life and culture. It draws on the idea, attributed to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, that a single story creates stereotypes by making one story the only story.

Question 2

Does YSA work with high school students, or just UC Berkeley students?

Accepted Answer

YSA runs a Boys and Girls Group at Oakland International High School for recent Yemeni immigrants and refugees under 18. The program focuses on academic success, teamwork, leadership, and cultural appreciation, with the goal of motivating these students to pursue college.

Question 3

Does YSA have a research component?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The research page hosts curated reports on Yemen's civil conflict, humanitarian crisis, and water sector, sourced from organizations including UNICEF, the Congressional Research Service, the World Bank, and the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

Question 4

Who is YSA for? Do you have to be Yemeni to join?

Accepted Answer

YSA centers the Yemeni community on campus and focuses on supporting Yemeni students, particularly first-generation and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. The website does not explicitly restrict membership to Yemeni students.

Yemeni Student Association of Berkeley