Bouchra Geagea

As a teenager, she didn’t feel like she had a way to address these issues until she heard from Amideast about Rise, an initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust that ​finds promising young people and provides opportunity for life as they work to serve others. Each cycle, Rise selects up to 100 Global Winners that receive benefits​ including ​a residential summit, need-based higher education scholarships​, ​funding for ideas on a competitive basis​, mentorship, ​and more. 

Bouchra immediately recognized that Rise could put her on a fast track to developing the skills that would empower her to address the issues ​sh​e cares​ about​. She submitted her application, which included a project focused on green rooftops for the project component that all applicants were required to submit. 

​​Since then, Bouchra has seen her world open up. As a Finalist, she participated in full-day, Zoom-based interviews with participants and selectors from around the world. As one of 100 Global Winners ​selected in ​2022, she is looking forward to continuing to collaborate with fellow​ Finalists and Winners​​     ​​ 

Thanks to Rise, Bouchra can now envision a pathway to having an impact. She plans to pursue a future as a corporate environmental lawyer, combining her passion for the environment with a skillset that will enable her to guide companies to follow best practices and hold large corporate polluters accountable. 

“[Environmental degradation] is an issue that isn’t taken seriously,” she says, referring to not only to global impacts but to those on Lebanon and her town, in particular. “I want to seek justice for all types of marginalized communities who are not being listened to.”