Aya Youssef

Aya Youssef is an international student who first completed a five-year Bachelor’s degree programme in Architecture at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (financed with a self-sought grant and completed with an average mark equivalent to 8.6). In Beirut, she was incredibly active both during and after her studies. For instance, she conducted online consultancy and research in the USA, the UK, and Japan, started her own start-ups, such as Step.propriate, for which she broadcasted a pitch for potential investors on Apple TV, participated in a hackathon in Singapore on the accessibility of water sources in relation to climate change (for which she won the first prize), and was invited by the authors of the book Modern achievement: a new approach to timeless lessons for aspiring leaders to tell her story as a young achiever.

Aya is now in her first year of the Research Master’s programme in Islands and Sustainability (a double-degree Erasmus Mundus programme, in which three universities besides the University of Groningen are joining forces, including the University of Iceland). She is also doing very well in this programme, as evidenced by the incredibly positive recommendation email from her supervisor and the mark of 8.7 that this supervisor awarded her for a course unit. In the context of her studies, she participated in the Copernicus Ocean Hackathon, for which she jointly won first prize. Aya and her team have been invited to build on their idea (Kelpture) further in Iceland. In addition, she participates in a whole host of other activities; too many to name here, but all proof of her will to commit herself to a better, more sustainable world.

Her motivation letter is written with great care and illustrates a broad perspective on the question of what architecture can mean for us to feel ‘at home’. She poses this question very broadly and has also visualized it in a card game that she developed herself, called ‘Where is Home, Find Home, Find You’. Particularly in a world of refugees, migrants, and displaced and indigenous populations, there is a need for a strong narrative of ‘home’. This brought her to her ‘Waves to home’ initiative. This is what her pitch touched on, and it is also clear to the jury that she is adept at clearly and persuasively communicating her original ideas on ‘home’ in relation to ourselves (‘space is personal’).