Community News V16-I17

Salman Khan appointed global ambassador by Obama

Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, has been named by President Barack Obama as one of 11 new Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE).

U.S. President Barack Obama has chaired the first-ever meeting of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship initiative, which is a group of successful American businessmen who have committed to sharing their time,energy, ideas, and  experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs, it said yesterday.

Khan, whose mother was born in Kolkata and father in Bangladesh, has produced more than 4,800 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, mainly focusing on mathematics and the sciences.

Till date, the Khan Academy channel on YouTube has attracted 1,633,000 subscribers and the Khan Academy videos have been viewed over 355 million times.
Students raise funds in memory of former classmate

Fatima Rahman, a high school student at Philadelphia’s Julia R. Masterman High School, recently passed away and now her friends and class mates are raising money in her memory. They have raised $3,278 in twelve days and the proceeds will go for the refurbishing of a mosque which Rahman attended.

College junior Allison Denenberg, who knew Rahman from Masterman, said that it was clear at Rahman’s funeral how much her community loved her and how important the mosque was to her family. Raising money for them seemed like a “more personal and direct way to honor Fatima’s memory,” she said.

Drexel University junior Mashaal Syed was also a friend of Rahman’s in high school and has been taking the lead on the fundraising. She said that after seeing that the mosque could benefit from new paint, tiling and a thorough cleaning, everyone agreed that raising money for the mosque was the perfect way to honor Rahman’s memory.

“She was really religious, so it’s in her honor and also helping to better her community,” Syed said.

Syed said she hopes to raise $5,000 for renovations to the mosque and wants to help renovate the mosque with other Masterman alumni and community members.

Akbar Ahmed’s play ‘Noor’ staged at Montgomery College in Maryland

“Noor,” a critically acclaimed play written by Pakistani American academic Akbar Ahmed and directed by Indian American Manjula Kumar, was screened at Montgomery College here on Monday.

The series, which mainly consists of lectures given at the college’s Germantown campus, is made possible by a $15,000 grant from the Frank Islam and Debbie Dreisman Foundation.The two-act drama, which deals with the issue of religious tolerance in the aftermath of the kidnapping of its central character, Noor, and the search for her by three brothers, each subscribing to different ideologies, was part of the Frank Islam Athenaeum Symposia Speaker Series.

After the screening, the director, playwright and actors, as well as Islam, answered questions from the audience.

Pronghorns’ Ahmed named All-American

Gillette College basketball player Muhammed Ahmed garnered his biggest honor of the season Thursday, earning a spot on the 2013-14 National Junior College Athletic Association D-I All-American third team.

The sophomore, who recently committed to play hoops next year at the University of North Texas, was one of 10 players named to the third team, and one of 30 on the top three teams. Last season, he led the Pronghorns with per game averages of 17.6 points and 6.9 rebounds.

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